Global Gateways
Spring 2026
Experience a semester in Dublin, Ireland! Participate in this one-of-a-kind opportunity for a select group of students.
Global Gateways offers you, as a select cohort of first-year students, the opportunity to study abroad during your second semester at Stetson. You will complete 16 credits abroad, including your required First Year Seminar and a general education course. Throughout the semester, you will engage in various cultural activities and excursions, including:
- Day-long trips to places like Howth, Glendalough, Newgrange, and Hill of Tara.
- Local site visits to Dublin Castle, Kilmainham Gaol, the GAA Museum, and Croke Park Stadium Tour.
- An overnight trip to locations outside Dublin, such as Galway or Northern Ireland.
- Local cultural events like Gaelic games, the Dublin food trail, and visits to Causey Farm.
During the program, a Stetson professor will accompany you, and a local study abroad provider will manage all on-site logistics. They operate a center in Dublin where classes are held and provide full on-site support for student housing, activities, excursions, orientation, health, safety, and more.
Related programs:
Study Abroad Discovery Program
Admissions Requirements
You must apply to Stetson University and submit a supplemental application for the Global Gateways Program. Apply early for the best consideration!
Students must be at least 18 years old by December 15, 2025
Why Study Abroad?
Earn credit towards your degree requirements at Stetson. Develop independence and self-confidence as a global citizen. Take on challenging academic and co-curricular activities. Use your financial aid and pay regular Stetson tuition for the program. Enhance your resume. Enjoy small classes alongside a cohort of Stetson students and a dedicated faculty member, fostering lifelong friendships and meaningful connections. Embark on travel and immerse yourself in a new part of the world!
“When I decided to take part in the Global Gateways Program, I had so many initial nerves. Little did I know three short months after arriving I would have made the most amazing friends and gone to three other countries. Going to Ireland did not only improve my college experience but my overall life experience. I am forever grateful for the opportunity! ”
Morgan Myers
Courses
Global Gateways has been designed to have students start their college experience abroad while progressing toward their degree requirements. As a student in this program, you will come back with 16 Stetson credits, including
- The Spirit of Travel (fulfills one of four “Writing Enhanced” courses you must take while you are at Stetson)
- a General Education Course: Travel Writing (fulfills an "A" gen ed as well as a "Writing Enhanced" requirement)
- Two elective classes focusing on Irish history, culture, or contemporary society
Learn more about WORLD
First, please ensure that you have applied to and been accepted by Stetson University. Once you have been accepted by Stetson and have been issued a Stetson ID (it will start with 800) and user name, you can click "apply now" on the Global Gateways application page and log in using your Stetson user name and password.
In the application, you will be asked to write a short response (1-2 paragraphs) OR upload a short video (around 2 minutes) answering one of the following prompts. Please do not use AI in your responses.
- Write about an experience where travel changed how you thought about something. Where did you go (it doesn’t have to be far)? Why did you go? What was it like? In what way did it make you think differently about something?
- Write about your favorite place away from home. Again, it doesn’t have to be some exotic location. It could be your grandmother’s farm or your friend’s beach house or that giant oak tree behind your cousin’s or the arcade down the street. Describe the place as specifically as possible, and tell us why it’s so special to you.
If you are accepted into the program, you will be asked to submit a non-refundable $500 deposit to confirm your spot in the program. The deposit will be applied to your Spring 2026 bill, reducing the amount you will owe to Stetson that semester.
Applications are reviewed and accepted on a rolling basis. Apply early for the best consideration!
For questions about the Global Gateways program, please contact [email protected] or [email protected]
All students in the program will take the Spirit of Travel FSEM and the Travel Writing Course with Professor Nancy Barber.
FSEM: The Spirit of Travel
In this course, students will look at the relationship between travel and spirit; in other words, the relationship between outer journeys and inner ones. Pilgrimages have long been a part of religious and cultural traditions: from sacred trips to the Holy Land, Mecca, Bodh Gaya, Lourdes, and Santiago de Compostela to secular pilgrimages to places like the Baseball Hall of Fame, the Vietnam War Memorial, or Graceland. Besides pilgrimages to one specific place, many travelers have more free-ranging objectives: for example, the Australian walkabout or the college-age rite of backpacking around Europe.
In this course, students will explore why travel is such a catalyst for spiritual growth. We focus on the ways in which travel, especially unpredictable travel outside one’s comfort zone, has an effect on the spirit. Since this class will take place in Dublin, students will focus on texts with an Irish perspective—novels, films, short stories and/or essays--as jumping-off points for thoughtful insights, discussions, and writings about the spiritual transformations of travel.
ENCW 111A: Introduction to Writing Literary Nonfiction (Special Topic: Travel Writing)
In this course, students will focus on the art and craft of travel writing. We will analyze exemplary Irish travel writing and try to model some of its magic as students craft, critique, and workshop their own essays based on their travel during the Global Gateways Program. The course will include four major creative nonfiction pieces and many journal entries.
The goals of this writing-enhanced course include the following:
- To strengthen existing writing skills
- To heighten understanding of travel-writing conventions
- To strengthen other life tools, including critical thinking, public speaking and reading
- To increase information, literacy and research abilities
- To produce an archive of writing from the semester in Ireland
Students will also take two additional 4-credit courses taught by Irish Abroad faculty.
Students in this program will be accompanied by Professor Nancy Barber.
Nancy Barber, Sullivan Lecturer in English and faculty director of the Global Gateways Program, majored in political science at Davidson College, then worked as a journalist before getting an MA in English at Stetson University and an MFA in poetry writing at the University of Florida. Barber has taught at Stetson University for 22 years and specializes in creative nonfiction. Her published articles include topics such as family business, human cannonballs, BBQ competitions, and bicycling across the U.S. In 2008, she co-wrote Meals Worth Stopping for in Florida.
Barber has taught an FSEM entitled The Spirit of Travel for over a decade. She taught Travel Writing in Stetson’s Innsbruck, Austria, Program in 2013 and in Stetson’s Freiburg, Germany, Program in 2010. She has extensive experience traveling and backpacking in Europe, including four different Caminos de Santiago hikes, the Tour de Mont Blanc, Hadrian’s Wall Path, and the European Peace Walk in Eastern Europe. Her summers are based in England when she’s not hiking, and she loves teaching and directing the program in Dublin.
Students in this program will pay their regular Stetson tuition and will have access to all of their financial aid (except for tuition exchange and work-study). Additionally, students will be charged the housing rate for an individual room in an apartment.
Students will not have to pay for a meal plan for the semester; however, they should budget for groceries and meals in Dublin.
Stetson's tuition and housing fees will cover 16 Stetson credits, all program activities and excursions, housing, a 30-day Dublin bus pass, and international health insurance.
Students should budget separately for roundtrip flights to Dublin, meals, and personal expenses.
Estimated Budget (all numbers are approximate):
- Tuition (Spring 2026) *Paid to Stetson:$29,645
- Student Life Fees (approximate) *Paid to Stetson: $400
- Housing *Paid to Stetson: $5,892 (single bedroom, private bathroom)
- Meals in Dublin (approximate): $3,000
- Passport and Visa costs: Approximately $500
- Roundtrip Airfare: approximately $1,500
Students should also budget for personal expenses such as individual travel and exploration, personal items, books, etc.
Travel Arrangements
Stetson will arrange an optional group flight from Orlando at the start of the program. If preferred, students who are traveling from outside the central Florida area can choose to book their flights and meet the group in Dublin. Flight costs are separate from tuition and housing fees.
Program Dates
January – late April/early May 2026. The exact dates will be confirmed in early fall 2025.
Orientation
All students will attend both a pre-departure orientation and an on-site orientation in Dublin. More information about this will be sent to program participants after they are admitted.
Program housing is apartment-style and located in the heart of the Dublin city center. All students are provided with a bus pass (we’ll get you started with approximately 50 euros on your bus pass – but you can add more money to the pass if you use it all up!) and are welcome to "top up" their bus pass throughout the semester.
Students will have their own bedroom with an ensuite bathroom in a six or seven-bedroom apartment. Common areas (such as the kitchen) will be shared with their flatmates.
Meal plans are not included; however, all students have access to a kitchen in their apartments to prepare their own food, and the apartments are centrally located within Dublin City, with several affordable restaurants nearby.
Questions?
Contact Stetson Admissions or Stetson WORLD: The David and Leighan Rinker Center for International Learning for more information.