CSHPE students reflect on the summer 2026 travel program to Chile

This summer, a group of CSHPE students, faculty, and staff traveled to South America to learn how higher education advances social change in Chile.

The experiential learning course engaged students in activities designed to help them understand Chile’s historical, political, social, and economic contexts, and their relationship to educational policies and practices both past and present. The group met with Chilean students, faculty, institutional leaders, and policy makers, to consider a range of timely higher education issues being addressed at a variety of institutions. The group also learned from community members about their experiences, and honed skills as educators, researchers, policy influencers, and change agents. Along the way, the group examined their own positionality, prior educational experiences, and current practices and considered how those factors inform their own understanding of Chilean higher education. They also drew comparisons between higher education in Chile and the U.S. to come to broader understandings of higher education as a global enterprise.

Read more about students’ experiences and reflections on the trip blog.