Excursion Criteria

Co-Curricular Requirements

Students will complete three documented and approved experiential learning excursions, from at least two of the following categories, with one of the excursions lasting at least 10 days, or (by petition) involving a commensurate level of intensity over a shorter duration.

Local — Texas
National — outside Texas, but in the United States and its territories
International — outside the United States

Approval Process

The Office of Global Engagement and Special Programs (OGESP) maintains a list of approved excursions. Faculty or students may submit additional experiential learning excursions for either prior or retroactive approval. Once an excursion has been approved and added to the list, any documented participant may count it toward the minor.

Approval Criteria

To be approved, excursions must have a global (defined as focusing on how a specific place and its physical, political, economic, social, historical and cultural topography make a difference relative to other locales) orientation and offer opportunity for meaningful community engagement, research and/or reflection. In addition, OGESP considers the following as positive criteria when evaluating excursions: faculty leadership of the trip, integration into a for-credit course, duration and intensity of the experiential learning component and other high-impact practices. Inclusion of reflective practice is required.

Documentation Process

For each of the three experiential learning excursions to be applied to the minor, students must submit documentation in two of the following forms: a first-person written reflection assignment, either previously submitted for course credit or written at the completion of the excursion (if independently pursued); a faculty affidavit attesting successful participation in and completion of the excursion; or other documentation. These materials should be uploaded into the forms linked here below.

Reflective assignment prompts may be found on the Post-Excursion Approval form. If submitting a reflection written for a class, please include the course name and number, along with the faculty member's name and UH email.