Faculty/ Program Directors

As SBCC faculty, you are the building block of the SBCC Study Abroad Program. As a professor, you have the chance to help create life-changing learning experiences for our students.

The benefits of studying abroad are plenty. In addition to students gaining life-long friendships, self-confidence, a global perspective and interpersonal and communication skills, students earn transferable units and become more competitive in the job market and when applying for a 4-year institution.

SBCC Study Abroad Program is one of the top community college abroad programs in the nation. Because the programs are faculty-led, they allow for a very diverse selection of destinations and course offerings to students each year.

As a program director, you can propose a program to a destination you already love or always wanted to visit and design a unique curriculum that is relevant to the destination.

SBCC offers short programs in the summer, winter or spring break, which are anywhere from 10 days to 4 weeks long, or semester programs in the spring or fall, which usually last up to 89 days.

Why lead a program abroad?

Class sizes are usually small (anywhere from 20 – 30 students) and you can teach on site and utilize the host country as a giant learning lab.

The unique opportunity to teach abroad is a great way of gaining a new perspective on teaching and on your students, change up your routine and develop personally and professionally.

You will be added to a list of highly regarded faculty members who have directed a program for SBCC to destinations that include Australia, Rwanda, Turkey, Vietnam, Cambodia, India, Cuba, New Zealand, Bali, Japan, Russia, China, Costa Rica, Mexico, Spain, Italy, France, Germany, England, Argentina, Bolivia, Thailand, South Africa, the former Soviet Union and more.

The Process

The international Education Committee accepts proposals for the upcoming school year every spring. The program proposal can be submitted either as a single program director or for co-director teams. Especially if you are part-time faculty, we encourage you to apply as a co-director with a full-time faculty. If you want to be a co-director but don’t have another director in mind please indicate that on the program proposal.

E-mails are sent out through the all-campus e-mail reminding faculty to submit proposals in mid-spring, so look out for that reminder!

In order to submit a program proposal, you should first set up a meeting with the Director of International Programs, Jing Liu, at (805) 730-4325 or e-mail jliu27@pipeline.sbcc.edu no later than two weeks prior to the application deadline. In the meeting you will discuss your idea and destination and get recommendations for the application as programs have to follow a specified format.

The application itself is completed online (see below). A signature page will be e-mailed to you (or see below) upon submission of the proposal with a copy of your proposal. This signature page will need to be submitted with a copy of your proposal to your department chair and dean, who both have to sign off on the proposal. The proposal also has to be signed by the Vice President of Academic Affairs.

Once the completed proposals with signatures are received by the deadline, they will be reviewed by the International Education Committee and interviews are scheduled. Both new and past program directors are interviewed for their proposed program.

After all interviews have been completed, the committee votes on those programs that will be selected and/or developed for the new school year.

Program Director Responsibilities

You can find a list of director responsibilities below, but as a brief summary, program directors help put the program together and are responsible for recruitment and conducting interviews with applicants prior to the program, teach courses and handle some counseling and administrative responsibilities while abroad and submit grades and reports upon return. Please see below for more details.

Program Director Workshop

If your program has been selected, the International Education Committee will hold a workshop for new and past program directors in the early fall semester to acquaint or reacquaint you with responsibilities, procedures and more. You will also receive helpful tips on how to conduct the student interviews. Studying abroad can be inherently stressful for students, and while we encourage everyone to apply for this amazing opportunity to go on your program, it is important that the student will be capable of having a successful and enjoyable time abroad.