Editor’s note: This is the first part of a three-part series about ACES 298: Bridging Sustainable and Professional Development Goals in Panamá. This first part shares the story behind the program, emphasizing how one idea can spark something grand.
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — It's been three years since the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign launched ACES 298: Bridging Sustainable and Professional Development Goals in Panamá, and in those three years, a dedicated group of people have shown just what it means to give first-generations student a chance to pursue global learning.
ACES 298: Bridging Sustainable and Professional Development Goals in Panamá launched in Spring 2025 and since its inception has provided opportunities to make a difference to more than 60 first-generation students.
Kimberly Alexander-Brown, The Jefferies Center Executive Director, explained that this program took two years to develop, and it all started with a shared idea.
A few years ago, Alexander-Brown spoke with Joy Phaphouvaninh, director of Illinois Abroad and Global Exchange, and told her about this concept she had to create a study abroad program specifically for first-generation students.
Unbeknownst to her, Kristine McCoskey, the former director of the Scholar Support Program (SSP) at Illinois, also reached out to Phaphouvaninh with the same idea.
“I had spoken with Joy on one occasion and so did Kristine, and (Phaphouvaninh) said, ‘Well, you know you all are talking about the same things, why don’t we have a joint conversation?’” Alexander-Brown recalled. “Our programs (the Jefferies Center and SSP) intersect because we work with students who are first generation and come from low-income backgrounds, so we were looking to create an abroad experience for those students. Joy walked us through the process to create this program.”
The first step, which was molding the framework for the program, was easy. Alexander-Brown said in addition to creating a first-generation study abroad course, they also decided to fashion the program around the university’s Vision 2030 Global Strategy and the UN’s Sustainability Goals. Theywanted students to be able to study abroad in the Global South.
The second step was to find a home for the program, and that’s when the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences (ACES) entered the chat.
Alexander-Brown said Phaphouvaninh reached out to Ali Freter, director of ACES study abroad, because ACES had the expertise needed to help fully flesh out the program they wanted.
Freter amplified this expertise and said overall ACES not only has about 20 short-term study abroad programs that they carry out every year, but because of these existing programs and partnerships they established a reputable rapport in Panamá.
Furthermore, ACES had a specialized, first-year study abroad program called ACES 298 that served as the perfect course model.
ACES 298 is a program that features two courses— ACES 298: Discovering Agricultural & Environmental Systems in Panamá and ACES 298: Service Learning & Sustainability in Ecuador. First-year incoming students who sign up for these courses take an eight-week, pre-departure class with faculty instructors in the fall before traveling together as a group in early January of the following semester.
“We shared our framework with Ali who said we could drop that easily into the 298 class she had been doing,” Alexander-Brown said. “From there, we met for over a year to figure out what the application process would look like, how the application process would likely differ from the mainstream scholarship application process for study abroad, what we were hoping the students would get out of the experience, and who would actually attend and participate.”
With the first two steps completed, McCoskey, Alexander-Brown, and Phaphouvaninh started the third step and created a planning team that also included Casey Moore, SSP assistant director, Jennifer Mendez, the former director of first-generation student initiatives at the Jeffries Center, and Freter.
As Alexander-Brown noted, the group met regularly over a year to collaborate on the behind-the-scenes specifics. Once those bigger pieces were decided, Freter and Mendez designed the course with some help from Cheelan Bo-Linn (Center for Innovation in Teaching & Learning) and Meredith Blumthal (Director of the Food and Agribusiness Management Program).
“So, we took what had already been chosen and... built the course from the ground up,” Freter said. “We needed to make sure it covered the learning objectives that Kimberly and Kristine and campus had prioritized while also making it applicable to students across campus in different majors, with different backgrounds, and different levels of experience with the subject matter. A huge piece of this was also building community amongst first generation students and giving them confidence in travel. We wanted to make a course that synthesized all of that.”
In the end, the first iteration of the program that launched in Spring 2025 featured different layers. It kept much of the same format as the other 298 programs, such as the eight-week, pre-departure segment. However, the approach was different.
For example, during the first part of the course, instructors helped give students a framework to understand their own cultural intelligence and also taught them how to create an action plan they could use when applying what they learned to their own communities. Furthermore, they taught students how to travel and what to expect.
And they learn this all before they travel to their destination.
“I tell the students that it’s not a trip. It’s an experience, an opportunity, a challenge,” Freter said. “There are a lot of different pieces in this program, but we’ve really tried to narrow down the learning objectives and have been trying to be as intentional as possible to really make sure everything we’re doing is in service of those objectives. So far, the feedback has been positive.”