InterFuture: Intercultural Studies for the Future

InterFuture challenges students to really engage in their study abroad experience. I wasn’t expected to attend some classes at an affiliated university. Instead, I lived with a host family, conducted an immersive independent research study, and developed advanced executive functioning abilities. There was an organized and professional training that made me feel empowered and engaged in my two semesters abroad. There is nothing that compares to InterFuture!

I was 19 and had never been outside of New England when I enrolled in InterFuture. it changed my life. They helped me design my own research project looking at how the history of the slave trade is remembered differently in Ghana, Tanzania, and New England. In Ghana and Tanzania, I lived with host families and spent my days traveling and researching. I was a member of a family, a member of a community, and an independent scholar - not a student running in a pack of other Americans to the regular tourist spots. It was an amazing experience that I would highly recommend to any student looking to do something more - more interesting, more immersive, and more challenging - than the normal study abroad.

InterFuture will change the way you think about pretty much everything, and will give you the most amazing memories. You will make great friends with people all over the US and in cities and villages around the world. You will learn so much through the academic program, but you will also learn so much just from your surroundings, living like a local and interacting with your neighbors. And I can pretty much guarantee you will wish you could do it all over again once it is through. It's a lot of hard work, but the rewards for that hard work last a lifetime. The studies staff is incredible and so supportive through it all, and the alumni network is amazing!

Definitely at least talk to InterFuture and see if it is the right study abroad program for you. You won't find a program like this anywhere else, and it isn't worth passing up the chance to learn more about it!

InterFuture provides a rigorous academic program together with immersion in a culture. I loved my host families and the opportunity to explore my research locales (England and Ghana) with a specific purpose - to learn more about my chosen research topic. The staff were amazing to work with before going abroad, as well. Ten years later and I still have so many close friends from this experience, both in the US and abroad!

InterFuture provided me with an amazing opportunity I wouldn't have had anywhere else and a chance to do the reasearch I wanted to do in the places I wanted to do them. It was an immersive experience that has impacted how I look at and engage with the world around me and gave me an opportunity to learn how to participate in my community and the communities of others in a thoughtful way. The program allows for up to two locales of research and encourages a culturally competent approach to thinking about and engaging with the research subject of your choice.