A recent Global Cornell story focuses on the course, Molecular Diagnostics: from Lab to Viñedo, which Integrates science, language and culture.

“This course fused my love of science, innovation and travel. Most science classes do not allow me to utilize my language skills or explore other cultures and countries,” says Madisen Swallow ’18, a biological sciences major in the College of Arts & Sciences. “We were in Chile to embrace the culture, language and people just as much as we were there to explore science and diagnostic techniques—this made the experience balanced and fun.”

The course, which debuted in 2017, promised undergraduate and graduate students the unique opportunity to combine hands-on laboratory training and theory with an overseas experience that integrates both language and cultural components.

“I learned the importance of adapting quickly to new situations and being flexible,” says Jane Wei ’18, another Arts & Sciences student. “I had to learn to collaborate with a whole class of students, which is pretty different from most of the lab work I have done individually or in small teams. Communicating with everyone, especially when things didn’t go as planned, was often difficult but crucial.”