Chico State students will get the chance to go abroad on faculty-led expeditions this summer.

The College of Humanities and Fine Arts has developed an international fellows program and five proposals have been approved for summer trips to the United Kingdom and China. Each faculty-led initiative can take a maximum of 15 students. Other trips will be offered within the next two years.

Rocky Winslow, director of jazz studies, is one of the five faculty members whose proposals have been accepted. He has plans to visit Southampton University in the United Kingdom.

The two-week trip would be for raw experience, as opposed to student credit, Winslow said. While there, he’ll hold clinics for the jazz band, give presentations and work with the students.

Winslow has also scheduled concerts throughout the area.

“That’s my idea so far; what could I do to take students over there?” Winslow said. “We’re thinking we can maybe go over there with that initial being a group and within that group, those individuals can branch out.”

Students will experience a culture outside of their own while learning in a different environment that could potentially broaden their horizons and provide them with a more global experience, Winslow said.

Funding isn’t currently an issue as the main concern is getting the program started, he said.

“I think it’s a really good idea and I’m excited to see what I can do with it,” Winslow said.

Robert Knight, dean of the College of Humanities and Fine Arts, came up with the program to give students experience abroad.

“Our students are graduating into an interconnected, global society and need to be given the opportunity to be exposed to the world prior to graduation,” Knight wrote in an email to The Orion.

Dominique Diaz can be reached at [email protected] or @dominiqueldiaz on Twitter.