In its recent report outlining principles for teaching undergraduate students in psychology, the American Psychological Association Board of Educational Affairs recommended including experiential learning in the curriculum and identified study abroad opportunities as being particularly valuable. Unfortunately, although American universities offer hundreds of faculty-led study abroad programs, only a handful of the programs offer coursework in psychology. In this article, I describe a program in Nicaragua on the psychology of social inequality I developed and have been leading for the past 10 years. I begin by describing the structure of the program and discuss my pedagogical approach and goals for the program. I then discuss research related to the value of short-term study abroad and provide evidence for the success of the Nicaragua program. Finally, I outline some initial steps in the program development process and urge faculty members to consider designing new study abroad programs in psychology.
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