The International Seminar Series has sponsored a four week summer community service program in Paris, France for ten years.

2009 will mark the eleventh year for the program in Paris and the first in Barcelona. Both programs offer students 16-18 years of age an intense cross-cultural immersion experience. They are rooted in substantial work in community service, intensive language training, and course work (literature and writing, history and politics, art and architectural history).

The two sites reflect old and new European traditions. Each is emblematic of a larger national culture. Their citizens struggle with: issues of national identity, new globalization, the presence of immigrant populations. Students learn to become residents of the larger culture, not passive observers or mere visitors.