The program will be taught in Bregenz, Austria by SIUC social work professor Elisabeth Reichert, a native of South Germany, who holds social work degrees in the United States and Germany.

She said she feels the program offered in Austria will give students understanding that they would not be able to receive while attending SIUC’s School of Social Work.

I am very excited to be able to teach SIUC students near my native country, she said. It will give the students a chance to understand different social services other than the United States. The social service systems the students will be learning about will include most of the same things that social work students study at SIUC, Reichert said.

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The students will learn about different ways to deal with making decisions about children and counseling, she said.

Reichert said she has been teaching at SIUC since August 1994, and this will be her first summer teaching in Austria.

M. Mizan Miah, associate director of the SIUC School of Social Work, who also helps coordinate the study abroad opportunities to Austria, said he thinks students will receive important cultural understanding that they would not normally receive in the United States.

The program that is going to Austria will give students a view of a different culture, he said. That is something we cannot offer here. It will be an international contact for our students to take a look at social service programs.

The program not only offers education in Austrian social services, but will focus on social service systems in Germany and Switzerland.

Miah said including German and Swiss social services in the program will help students because those particular countries are close to Austria.

It will give an even more broad understanding of European social service along with the cultural understanding of other countries, he said.

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Reichert said participants in the program will travel to social service sites in the other countries as well as Austria.

The field trips will focus on European institutions, she said. We will travel to the sites and talk with the people, and the students will be able to learn from this.

Reichert said the $1,800 cost of the program includes tuition, airfare, overnight stay with local people and local transportation.

Social work students wishing to participate in the program can contact the SIUC School of Social Work.