CCU In the World
Click each section below to read about CCU student and staff engagement around the world.
Spring 2024
This semesters spring break saw several programs go abroad!
Recap time from some of the study abroad programs that took place over spring break! Wall College of Business, Business & Culture in Spain and Italy; Edwards College of Humanities and Fine Arts, International Business Ethics & World Religions in Germany and Austria; CCU's first Alternative Spring Break Abroad, Homeless Support in Greece
Interested in going abroad? Email: studyabroad@coastal.edu
Above: Wall College of Business-Business and Culture in Spain & Italy
Below: Edwards College of Humanities and Fine Arts-International Business Ethnics & World Religions in Germany & Austria
Below: CCU's first Alternative Spring Break Abroad-Homeless Support in Greece
Public Health senior, Clare Cuenya, recently completed an internship abroad in Buenos Aires and Cordoba, Argentina.
I recently completed my senior Public Health internship in Buenos Aires and Cordoba, Argentina (5 weeks in each city). December 9-February 17. I was assisting the local free clinics in some of the poorest parts of the country.
Throughout this experience, I have witnessed several different cases and have been able to see the differences between public and private medicine within this country. Public medicine is entirely free in Argentina, and I will add that all of these listed offerings from my assigned clinic are ALL free! I have been amazed at the diligent basics that this country's medicine consists of and comes from all basic things with limited importing items and technologies in their slower developments of medicine.
I have been able to fully immerse myself into not only my healthcare project but also a variety of extracurricular volunteering opportunities and projects that have enhanced my love of helping others of all ages, forms, and locations! I hope this helps you get a glimpse of what an awesome experience this was for me!"
-Clare Cuenya
Faculty Member April N Abbott, Ph.D. Conducted Research in the Antarctic over the Winter.
2/6/24
"In November, I travelled to Punta Arenas Chile to meet the Research Vessel Ice Breaker (RVIB) Nathaniel B Palmer for an Antarctic research cruise. After we all rubbed the toe of the Magellan statue in the town square, said to provide safe passage for seafarers heading south, we crossed the infamous Drake Passage and went through the scenic straights along the western edge of the Antarctic peninsula before continuing onto our study area, the Amundsen Sea. With a science party of 45 representing more than 10 institutions and 23 funded research proposals, we spent about two months collecting water, sediment, air, and ice samples to constrain chemical cycling in this rapidly changing environment. I was responsible for collecting and processing the sediment cores collected using a 'mega-corer,' a device that lets us take up to 12 cores at once. We collected cores from 9 locations, processing a total of 99 cores! Working in 24 hour daylight with penguins and seals making regular appearances was fascinating. Following a very successful science program, in late January we headed to Christchurch New Zealand to offload the ship and begin our trips home. This cruise was part of the international GEOTRACES program, a collaboration of scientists from 35 countries to characterize and understand the marine biogeochemical cycles of trace elements and their isotopes in the ocean" -April N Abbott
"Me in front of the RVIB Nathaniel Palmer before we left the dock in Punta Arenas, Chile."
"Me and a colleague in front of the RVIB Nathaniel Palmer at a sea ice sampling station. We were moored in 'fast ice' so were able to put the gangway down to allow the science party on the ice."
"An Adelie penguin runs towards the camera during a sea ice sampling stop."
"A group of scientists gather on the bow to watch the Getz Ice Shelf pass by."
"The mega-corer is sent over the side to collect 12 tubes of sediment from the seafloor for geochemical analysis."
CoBE Institute-Sustainable Solutions for Micropreneurs in Panama
1/19/24
The Community and Business Engagement Institute is an associate-led professional
organization housed in Coastal Carolina University's Wall College of Business that bridges the gap between business
theory and workplace experience by pairing high-achieving students with real-world business-consulting projects. Since
2008, CoBE has partnered with 61 organizations for a total of 67 projects, many of which have been for organizations
within Horry County. With the increased global connection in today's world, there is a growing demand for global
competency. CoBE partnered with a nonprofit in January of 2024 on a week-long international travel program to expose
these CoBE associates to micropreneurs in Panama City and the broader Coclé Province of Panama in need of sustainable
business solutions. Global Business Brigades is an international movement of university students and professionals
building economic opportunities in the developing world. The students worked alongside promising local entrepreneurs
and experienced year-round staff to create financial opportunities in remote, rural, and under resourced areas of Panama.
Business student volunteers participated in a short-term 'brigade' to facilitate financial literacy workshops and provide
consulting to micro-enterprises on topics ranging from marketing to accounting. In Panama specifically, volunteers also
provided capacity building workshops to the leaders of the community banks to increase membership, improve operations,
and identify lower risk borrowers.
Steven Higginbotham, Professor of Theatre, participated in the La MaMa Umbria 2023 International Symposium for Directors, representing CCU in this forum of theatre directors from around the world. In addition to leading his own session and projects, Professor Higginbotham worked with Dmitry Krymov (Staging Chekhov and Shakespeare), Thomas Ostermeier (Theatre of Contradiction), Iman Aoun (Theatre of the Oppressed in Conflict Zones), and Ong Keng Sen (Unhappy Archives: Building Performance around Decoloniality).
Charles Clary, associate professor
Hall of Fame and ESPN college basketball analyst, who congratulated the players for being the first CCU women’s basketball team to travel abroad. Aja Blount, sophomore forward from Northampton, Pa., noted, “This has been my first time out of the country and it’s been an awesome experience. I enjoy seeing how different we live from the Cubans. It’s cool seeing the classic cars and how people live here. I also like interacting with the Cubans and trying to speak Spanish to them from what I learned in Spanish class. Everyone here is so kind and polite.” The Chanticleers fought hard in the three exhibition games played at the Havana Sports Complex, and though they lost the three games, they learned a lot. Caitlin Roche (Senior, Montvale, N.J.) “The past three days I have been able to watch my teammates compete at a very high level against a 
very strong and talented Cuban team. Although we did not come out with the win today, these past three games have all been great learning lessons. I believe this experience is one that has helped us all come closer as a family and better as a team. This is the type of experience that will especially count down the road. The Cuban team impressed me very much. Their players were all extremely quick, athletic and skilled. I got a sense that they were all so knowledgeable, their understanding of the game and how it should be played was clear. Not one player on their team was selfish.”
CCU philosophy professor Nils Rauhut was working with CCU exchange partner, the Technische Hochschule Rosenheim, to teach in its location in Rosenheim, Germany, as a part of the International Summer School on Business Ethics on the broader theme of Doing Business Across Europe that runs from June 24 – July 19, 2019. The summer school ?as a whole moved students across three countries (Germany, the Netherlands, and Spain) for the learning experience. Further detail about the program is available at:
Gary Schmidt, CCU professor of German and chair of the Department of Languages and Intercultural Studies, has been selected by the German-American Fulbright Commission for a special program entitled “On the Road! Exploring the U.S.-American Heartland.” This program is being organized as part of the Year of German-American Friendship celebration and provides three groups of Fulbright Scholars the opportunity to embark on a week-long journey across the U.S. to explore German heritage in the American heartland. Participants will organize different events to engage Americans in a dialogue on Germany and the transatlantic friendship. Participants will help plan the activities throughout the four stops per group and execute them independently as a team. The final destination of the week-long trip (May 11-19, 2019) is the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville, where a conference with up to 150 Fulbright grantees and alumni will be held. Gary Schmidt was selected to serve as a Fulbright Scholar for the “German Studies Seminar” in Berlin and Leipzig in 2005 on current trends in German literature.
Eight CCU students (Madison Scholar, Morgan-Mckay Hoppmann, Eliecer Fernandez, Lendon Little, Jeffrey Hutchins, Caitlyn Fegett, Sophie Sumpter, and Lukas Little) are participating in a CCU course, titled “Global Perspectives: Migration,” through which they are participating in the 2019 International Student Festival in Trondheim (
CCU assistant professor of theatre Ben Sota is participating with CCU theatre student Milla Blackwelder in the
Professor William Hills, a professor of psychology in CCU’s College of Science, has been awarded a Fulbright to Poland for 2018/19 on the topic, “The Importance of Gerontology Education: Making Career Choices for the Future of Poland.” His grant will involve teaching students at the Medical University of Lublin and working with colleagues there to further service delivery efforts and integration of older adults into all levels of Polish society. Coastal Carolina University has 19 Fulbright scholars among its current faculty and staff, and 12 former Fulbright scholars among its retired faculty and staff. Professor Hills, who has previously received a Fulbright in 2013 to teach at Russian State Social University in Moscow, Russia, and who participated in a Fulbright Group Hays project to Poland in 2003, is one of approximately 1,100 U.S. faculty and professionals who will travel abroad through the Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program in 2018-2019. The Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program is administered by the Council for International Exchange of Scholars, a division of the Institute of International Education.
