Off-Campus Study and Internship Programs

In deference to the IDPH’s authority and the guidelines issued by the CDC, and in the effort to slow down the spread of COVID-19, Grinnell College administration has made the difficult decision to suspend upcoming College-sponsored international travel for all students, staff, and faculty until further notice. This suspension includes faculty-led programs, externships, MAPs, and independent research abroad. This decision does not apply to faculty and staff already abroad nor to Off-Campus Study students currently on their Spring program (unless the study abroad program makes a future decision to suspend). We are grateful for the work of the many campus partners who are coming together to provide care and support for students, faculty, and staff in these situations.

Off-Campus Study (OCS) Programs

The travel suspension does not currently apply to fall/full-year 2020 or spring 2021 off campus study. The College's decision to suspend currently applies to international college-sponsored spring break programs and spring semester travel.

As we continue to monitor the fluid COVID-19 situation with your health, safety and well-being at the forefront, and based on recently announced travel restrictions, Grinnell College has made the difficult decision to suspend all OCS Spring 2020 programs in Europe. With this suspension comes the following:

• You should depart as soon as possible and return to your home (not to Grinnell).
• If your program is not suspending (again, to be clear, you must still leave your program) nor are they offering to reimburse your flight changes, the College will reimburse you. If you need assistance with booking and paying for change fees, please email details to Alicia at stanleya@grinnell.edu. 
• If you’re not able to complete your courses remotely through your program, the College will work with you on an individual basis on academic credit issues and degree completion. We will be working with the Registrar on this over the coming days.
• We are also working with the billing and financial aid offices on processing refunds, and will provide additional information as soon as possible.

Please check in with your onsite staff to see what exit requirements they may have for you to complete. We will inform your parents/guardians as well as your program providers of this decision.

When you have booked your flight, please enter the details in the Spring 2020 Return Information form in the post-decision phase of your application in our portal at https://travel.global.grinnell.edu.

International Internship Programs

The College has an internal deadline of April 1 to evaluate all summer college-sponsored international programs/travel. Our goal is continue summer plans as normal. In the case of IGE-CLS Summer 2020 International Internship Program through IES Abroad or SIT Study Abroad, we will continue to work closely with our partner programs. In the meantime, students have been advised to proceed with plans and explore back-up options for the summer.

The CLS deadline for supplemental funding for this internship program is April 1. Students in need of supplemental funding must submit an application by this deadline. 

Questions or concerns may be directed to Kelly Harris in CLS.