CONNECTING 51品茶WITH THE WORLD

The Office of Global Affairs is responsible for all matters related to global outreach at the 51品茶. We connect you with enriching study abroad opportunities through Global Education programs while overseeing UNE鈥檚 Tangier, Morocco campus and building study-abroad partnerships with other institutions around the world.

Spend a Semester Abroad with Global Education Programs

51品茶strives to empower students in becoming global citizens, and our students study abroad at nearly five times the national average. Our global education programs make it easy for you to gain valuable international experiences.

51品茶Morocco

Spend a semester abroad at 51品茶Morocco, the first U.S. university campus in Morocco. Our beautiful campus features state-of-the-art labs, classrooms, and residences in the heart of one of the hottest up-and-coming study abroad destinations, and new scholarships are available for most students.

Aerial view of Seville, Spain

Seville, Spain

Our partnership with the University Pablo de Olavide enables you to spend a semester in Seville 鈥 where the ancient meets the modern, and world cultures converge 鈥 for the same cost as a semester on campus in Maine.

Flower Market in Aix-en-Provence

Aix-en-Provence, France

Our partnership with the American College of the Mediterranean enables you to spend a semester abroad at 51品茶France in beautiful Aix-en-Provence, a charming university city in the south of France near the French Riviera and the Mediterranean.

Akureyri City at Night

Akureyri, Iceland

Explore Iceland in our semester abroad program at the University of Akureyri. The northern city of Akureyri, 鈥淭he Green Town,鈥 is surrounded by mountains at the head of Iceland鈥檚 longest fjord.

Reykjavik, Iceland

搁别测办箩补惫铆办, Iceland

Explore Iceland in our semester abroad program at the University of Iceland, 搁别测办箩补惫铆办. Iceland鈥檚 largest city, 搁别测办箩补惫铆办, is a small, accessible city surrounded by glaciers, volcanos, waterfalls, hot springs, and an abundance of wildlife.

Panoramic view of Bergen's harbor in Norway

Norway and Finland

As part of the North2North Exchange program, you have the opportunity to study abroad for a semester or year at the University of Bergen in Bergen, Norway; the Arctic University of Norway in Tromso; and the University of Helsinki in Helsinki, Finland.

Take a Short-Term Travel Course

UNE鈥檚 Global Education Program also offers an array of short-term travel courses to destinations like Spain, Belize, Egypt, Iceland, Italy, Guatemala, Panama, Ireland, Kenya, Ghana, Cuba, Mexico, and Morocco. Students accepted into these programs will meet in a traditional course setting throughout the semester to prepare for travel through readings, lectures, and coursework, then travel during a semester break or over the summer.

Explore Travel Courses

John Reinbott '18

John Reinbott 鈥18

Marine Science
A constant reminder of how much John Reinbott loved his time in Morocco
In English, the Arabic tattoo reads "The world is a book. Those who don鈥檛 travel only read one page in it."

Have you ever loved something or someone so much that you needed a constant reminder of just how much? Well, I loved my experience in Morocco so much I had it permanently inked on my arm. That's the kind of passion a semester abroad in Morocco creates. As if that weren't enough, my new found love of travel helped me discover my career path.

Upon my return from Tangier, Morocco, I focused on continuing my studies in the marine sciences. Unsure of what path within that field I would take, but yearning for more travel experiences, I enrolled in a travel course that would take me to Belize to study coral reef ecology. Each semester Jeri Fox, associate professor of Marine Biology, offers a course that takes students to Belize to expose them to coral reefs.

After spending eight days snorkeling in the crystal-clear waters of the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef off the coast of Ambergris Caye in Belize, I knew I was destined to spend my life helping to conserve and protect these beautiful, fragile coral reefs and their surrounding ecosystems. In order to make this a reality, though, I needed more hands-on experience and that's just what I did.

There was no better way to combine a desire to travel and a need to gain more experience in a field I could spend a lifetime devoted to, than to intern in a foreign land. Before I could apply, I had to get my scuba certification. As with all things, when given the opportunity, I went full speed ahead and completed that certification and began working up to becoming a Professional Association of Diving Instructors (PADI) certified rescue diver. With certification in hand, it was time to apply.

Both 51品茶travel experiences and my sense of adventure prepared me well to accept the offer to become a coral reef intern at a remote dive base within the Sian Ka'an Biosphere Reserve in Mexico with Global Visions International (GVI). I was incredibly excited to start the two-month journey as I grabbed my mosquito net and GoPro and boarded a plane for destinations little known.

John Reinbott diving for Lion Fish
Surveying Lionfish, an invasive species.

As a coral reef intern, I took part in an in-depth science regiment to learn how to identify sixty coral species by their scientific names. This was achieved by exams conducted on the computer as well as in the field. I and a qualified science officer would dive and as they pointed at a type of coral I would write its name down on a dive slate. After many long days spent repeating these exams, I graduated to reef monitor.

John Reinbott

Soon, I was headed out on our dive boats to a nearby monitoring site where I helped collect vital data (reef and species composition/abundance, coral predation and bleaching, the competition of other benthic organisms). The data collected was organized and sent off to other companies such as CONAP and Amigos de Sian Ka'an to help aid in assessing the overall health of surrounding reef ecosystems. Despite the lack of air conditioning, running water, and cell service the two months I spent working with GVI, to help conserve the surrounding section of the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef, were the best two months of my life.

I returned to my hometown in New Jersey from my internship poised to finish my final year at 51品茶and land a position at a coral reef conservation organization anywhere in the world. I am grateful for the opportunities I was provided and unbeknownst to it, 51品茶serendipitously not only gave me a love of travel but a clear direction for where my professional life was headed.

My semester in Tangier, Morocco gave me a love of travel and a travel course 鈥 snorkeling among coral reefs in Belize 鈥 gave me a career path.

Marine Science

Agreements

The 51品茶 has made a strategic decision to develop a global outreach beyond routine faculty-led travel courses or using the services of third-party providers. We don't hold empty agreements with other universities or institutions; the agreements we have signed in Spain and Morocco involve real partnerships, such as investing in outfitting new labs, developing exchange programs in health care professions, and sharing resources and faculty.

View all agreements

Lecture Series

The Center for Global Humanities at the 51品茶 is dedicated to exploring the human condition in the 21st century. Lectures are held on UNE's Portland Campus for the Health Sciences and are streamed live on the internet. All events are free and open to the public.