The Sullivan Foundation’s next Study Abroad experience will debut in partnership with the University of New Orleans’ Innsbruck International Summer School in Austria, launching a new Sullivan Certificate in Leadership & Entrepreneurship. Students will take two courses: Leadership for Impact and Entrepreneurship for Good, and earn six U.S. college credit hours, and complete a credential designed specifically for values-driven changemaking. The inaugural session runs July 3–August 7, 2026, with applications opening in October 2025. Program fees include housing, weekday meals, excursions, and travel insurance; the experience is open to UNO students and to students from other universities who meet a 3.0 GPA threshold.
That structure marks a step forward for Sullivan’s study-abroad model. Earlier programs emphasized intensive field learning and leadership development in shorter windows; this new design layers that same hands-on approach into a full, credit-bearing summer term with a named certificate that shows up well on a transcript and résumé. In other words, it formalizes what past cohorts gained informally: leadership practice, entrepreneurial thinking, and a network of peers and mentors committed to measurable community impact.
Recent history shows how the pathway evolved. In summer 2024, a Sullivan-supported cohort studied in San José, Costa Rica, in a two-week immersion organized by Brenau University’s Dr. Renée Just. Students met local entrepreneurs and university peers, toured businesses, and reflected on leadership in context. A compact model that emphasized proximity, conversation, and early tests of ideas. Lees-McRae’s write-up captures the flavor: site visits to farms and small enterprises, dialogue with Costa Rican students, and a sharp focus on the habits that turn intent into outcomes.
The year before, the Foundation promoted month-long summer study in Strasbourg, France, and in July 2024 encouraged a four-week Panama City, Panama program, each built around two three-credit courses and heavy use of field visits. Those offerings delivered the same Sullivan staples of leadership practice, impact entrepreneurship, community assessment, and storytelling, however without a dedicated certificate. They were rigorous, practical, and intentionally immersive, but they stopped short of codifying the experience as a formal credential.
What’s different now? By embedding within the UNO–Innsbruck summer school, the upcoming program blends academic depth and fieldwork with clear academic signals: course titles that map to leadership and venture-building, a defined six-credit package, and a certificate that names the learning achieved. Daily life is structured with classes Monday through Thursday, workshops and projects late mornings, and afternoons/weekends for cultural excursions and independent exploration, without losing the “learn from local leaders” DNA that has long distinguished Sullivan’s approach. It’s still experiential; it’s just fully-recorded on a transcript.
Admissions and logistics are similarly straightforward. The program is open to students from UNO and other institutions; applicants submit transcripts and a home-campus information form to ensure transfer credit. Housing is in modern student residences with weekday meals included; excursions across Austria (and, time permitting, beyond) round out the learning arc. Fees exclude airfare and most dinners/weekend meals, but include travel health insurance, an important detail for first-time global travelers.
The through-line across all these iterations is simple: leadership is learned in motion. Past cohorts proved the model in Costa Rica and Panama; the next iteration places that practice inside a full academic term and confers a credential that employers and graduate programs can recognize at a glance. For students weighing how to spend a summer, the pitch is pragmatic: earn credit, build skills, and come home with both field experience and a certificate that shows purpose and capability.
The road ahead
Applications for the Austria program open in October 2025. The session runs July 3–August 7, 2026, in Innsbruck, with two courses: Leadership for Impact and Entrepreneurship for Good. These count for six credits and the Sullivan Certificate in Leadership & Entrepreneurship. Eligibility extends to UNO and non-UNO students with a 3.0 GPA; housing, excursions, weekday meals, and travel insurance are included in the program fee.
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