FOR EDUCATORS

Faculty-Led Field Study

Supporting media educators in leading truly transformative student travel.

LET'S EXPLORE WHAT IT MEANS
TO BE A STORYTELLER

Actuality Abroad is dedicated to educational travel for emerging filmmakers, photographers and other storytellers. We partner with educators to design custom documentary-related travel courses for College and University groups.

Since 2010, Actuality Abroad has led dozens of study abroad experiences in 20+ countries on five continents.

Our expertise lies at the intersection of nonfiction storytelling, social justice, and media production abroad. A core component of our program development is to collaborate with local changemakers in each community that we travel to, and ensure an authentic, immersive, and ethical experience for your students.

In development of all of our programs we offer...

Ethically minded destination preparation
Local partner research and reciprocity strategy
Curriculum development that centers students’ personal and professional growth
Conscious itinerary planning that leaves space for reflection
Arranging travel logistics supplied solely by locally owned businesses
Providing insightful guides that properly support students and faculty in country

EXAMPLE TRIPS

DOCUMENTARY TRAVEL COURSE

A four-week immersive filmmaking workshop where students learn documentary production, ethical storytelling, and responsible travel. Students are group in 4-person crews and each crew produces a short documentary from research to delivery, culminating in a community screen before the end of the trip. Certainly, We work in partnership with local social impact organizations and enable students to tell stories that support their work and elevate the local community.

SPRING BREAK STORYTELLING TRIP

A week-long on location workshop where students learn documentar video/photo production through practical experience working with a social impact organization. This can be the travel component of a semester-long University course. In the first part of the semester, prior to travel, the storytelling projects are developed in remote collaboration with partner organization in the destination. After the trip, the remaining weeks of the semester are dedicated to editing, delivery and outreach.

FACULTY TESTIMONIALS

“Working with Actuality Abroad for my faculty-led study abroad program in Bali, Indonesia was a great experience, both for myself and for the students from my institution, Old Dominion University. The program blended academic presentation, field work, and exposure to the local community in a way that highly benefitted the students. Not only did they have a fantastic time, but they both learned a lot and came away with quality films whose distribution benefits the NGO partners, themselves as aspiring filmmakers, and our department here at ODU. As an instructor, it was great to be able to concentrate on what I wanted the program to accomplish than on the logistics, and [Actuality Abroad] did a great job of helping us find suitable NGO partners for the student projects..”

Professor David Mallin, Old Dominion University

“The experience our students get from traveling with Actuality Abroad makes them better filmmakers, better artists and better persons.”

Professor Ed Talavera, University Of Miami

”I am so thankful that I bumped into Actuality Abroad at a social issue documentary conference at American University back in 2013. I spent the afternoon with Robin and Aubrie and was blown away by their combination of passion and expertise; they had already built something that I had only dreamed of doing some day. Since then, I have taken my students on [three] trips with Actuality [Abroad]. [The] experiences were life-changing for my students and helped them to create compelling and important work they could truly be proud of. It is also helped raise the profile of documentary production in my department when my students presented their films at on-campus symposiums and even at an undergraduate research conference.”

Dr. Christopher Boulton, University of Tampa

DISCOVERY CALL

If you are considering developing a faculty-led study abroad program that involves documentary storytelling, we are the experts. Send us a message and we can book a call to discuss how we can help you and your students travel the world and tell stories that matter.