Fast Facts
DATES: June 18 - July 17, 2026
GENERAL LOCATION: Arles, France
ENROLLMENT CAPACITY: 20
FOCUS: Photojournalism and Graphic Design
PARTNER UNIVERSITY: University of Jamestown
PROJECT COST: $5,995 + airfare
ACADMIC CREDIT: Optoinal 3 units, $450
INCLUDES: Housing, instruction ,travel and health insurance, farewell dinner and special programs, activities and cultural events. Academic Credit is optional. DOES NOT INCLUDE AIRFARE.
The Berlin Project
Guided and mentored by a team of accomplished journalists and professors, students report, write and produce media from the cultural capital of today’s Europe, on topics from art and architecture, to the politics and economics of global migration, to sustainable living in the face of climate change.
Berlin is the political and economic center of the continent and home to a pulsing counterculture. It is an international hub for creative young people while its very stones and street corners hold reminders of its darker histories during the Communist, Nazi, and Prussian eras.
“There is nowhere in the world where you have seen such enormous changes in such short times,” said author and journalist Peter Schneider, who has written three books on Berlin. “For the good and for the bad, these enormous changes make the character of the city and of the people who live here.”
Our 3-week summer course focuses on telling the stories of Berliners, Germany and Europe, across media platforms. That includes reporting, writing, photography, video and social media. The beginning of the program features classes in basic skills, such as how to find a story in a foreign culture, how to interview with the help of an interpreter and how to write, edit and produce features.
After a breakfast meeting each day, students head out into the community to interview, often with faculty accompanying them. Together, as a group, we interview writers, filmmakers, journalists and diplomats.Â
“Berlin, the greatest cultural extravaganza that one could imagine.”
— David Bowie, rock musician
Berlin Beyond Borders
Each year our students produce stories that may appear in Berlin Beyond Borders, a publication on medium.com. These prove to be valuable portfolio pieces that boost student credentials as media professionals when looking for jobs and internships. Students also post to the Berlin Beyond Borders Instagram, Facebook and Twitter feeds.
The City
A city of neighborhoods – nine times the size of Paris in area – Berlin teems with different ethnic groups and affordable eateries, concerts and events. Especially in the summer, locals spill out onto the sidewalks in the cafes of Kreuzberg, Prenzlauer Berg and so many other districts.
Berlin is Germany’s greenest city with 44 percent of its area comprising waterways, woods, rivers and green spaces. A community-conscious but relaxed vibe can be felt in the many large parks within the city, from the Tiergarten next to Germany’s capital buildings to the former Tempelhof airport which has been reclaimed as parkland. Many choose to discover Berlin on bicycles which can be rented on many street corners and can be taken onto the U-Bahn and S-Bahn lines of the city’s world-class transit system.
“You are crazy, my child. You must go to Berlin.”
— Franz von Suppé, 19th century Austrian composer
With about 170 museums of all types, there are too many landmarks and cultural sites to name. Find sections of the Berlin Wall, which stood from 1961 to 1989, or visit the former Checkpoint Charlie Cold War border crossing, the Topographie of Terror exhibition on the site of a World War II Gestapo jail, or the East Side Gallery, a mile-long mural painted by more than 100 international artists in 1990 when the Cold War ended.
As a group we will spend a day in Potsdam at Sanssouci, the summer palace of German emperor Friedrich the Great and at Cecilienhof, where the four Allied powers negotiated the treaty that ended World War II. We will also watch the sun set over Berlin from the dome atop the Reichstag, Germany’s parliament building, restored and renovated in 1999, after the country reunited.
Cultural and Recreational Activities
- The Museum Island, a Unesco world heritage site.
- Three world-class opera houses and 150 theaters.
- 300 art galleries, from major public institutions to avant-garde spaces.
- Techno clubs, Cabaret and Varieté venues.
- Drag clubs and a vibrant LGBTQ scene.
- Lakes for swimming, such as Wannsee, Schlachtensee and Krumme Lanke.
- Boat rides along the Spree River and through the city’s canal system.
- Saturday outdoor markets in Winterfeldtplatz and Kollwitzplatz.
Weekends
The first Sunday is reserved for a group trip to Potsdam, but students will have Saturday to explore on their own. The middle weekend will be available for free time or a trip to Prague, a five-hour train-ride away. Dresden is a two-hour train ride. And the Baltic seaport of Rostock is also possible as a day trip or overnight. Distances are great, so more extensive tourism in Germany or other parts of Europe should be planned for before or after our 3-week course.
Academic Credit
Academic Credit (3-4)
Students have the option to earn three academic credits of an upper-division journalism elective for this course. The credits will be issued by the University of Jamestown, and we will work with you so they are easily transferable to your university. Transfer credit ultimately depends on a student’s home university. The cost for three academic credit is $450 (See the FAST FACTS at the top of the page for Program Cost).
NOTE: Students on a quarter system will be able to transfer as four(4) credits at no additional fee for ieiMedia courses that are listed as three(3) credits. Transfer credit ultimately depends on a student’s home university. Please check with your university for procedures to follow when transferring credits to your institution.
Students
The program is open to English-speaking college students and recent graduates from any school. Most of our students are journalism, creative writing or communications majors; those majoring in other subjects are welcome as well. Experience working for a college or professional publication is helpful but not required. The program is open to English-speaking students and recent graduates from around the world.Students from many universities have participated in past ieiMedia programs, including:
American University, Arizona State University, Baylor University, California State University Fullerton, California State University Long Beach, Carleton University, Colorado State University, Georgia College and State University, Georgetown University, Humboldt State University, Indiana University, Iowa State University, Ithaca College, James Madison University, Louisiana State University, New York University, Rider University, Rutgers University, Ryerson University, San Diego State University, San Francisco State University, State University of New York at New Paltz, Syracuse University, Temple University, Truman State University, UCLA, University of Arizona, University of British Columbia, University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, University of Wisconsin-Madison, University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh, Kennesaw State University, University of Illinois, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, University of Northern Iowa, University of Southern California, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Virginia Tech, and Washington and Lee University. We’ve also had students from Japan, the United Kingdom, Puerto Rico, and Trinidad participate.
Graduates
Graduate students are also invited to apply. We’d be happy to talk with you about supervising an independent project that would qualify for graduate credit at your school – or to offer this experience as a graduate internship.
Faculty Director
Nomi Morris
Amara Aguilar
Amara Aguilar is an associate professor of professional practice in digital journalism at USC Annenberg. She previously was the journalism department chair and an assistant professor of journalism at Saddleback College in Mission Viejo, Calif., where she advised student news publications and led the journalism program’s mobile and tablet initiatives. She was honored by the California Journalism Education Coalition as “Journalism Educator of the Year†in the two-year college division in 2014. Previously Amara taught multimedia as an assistant professor at Pierce College in Los Angeles, where she taught multimedia storytelling, podcasting, online journalism, media design and development. There she launched a student-run internet radio station, KPCRadio.com, and developed curriculum for a new mobile application design program. Before teaching at Pierce, she taught photojournalism, online journalism and design classes at Cal State Long Beach. In addition, she continues to freelance as a writer, designer and visual journalist (for print and web) and is currently working on independent consulting projects. She has written for the Los Angeles Times and was previously a designer and sports reporter for the Daily Pilot in Costa Mesa. Amara has her master’s degree in communications from Cal State Fullerton. Her research in graduate school focused on blogging in journalism. She is also an Apple Certified Trainer for Final Cut Pro and loves all things tech. Amara is a member of the Society of Newspaper Design, Online News Association, National Association of Hispanic Journalists, and Society of Professional Journalists. She has done media consulting and training for various professional media organizations, universities, colleges and high schools.
Faculty
Vanessa Guinan-Bank
Vanessa Guinan-Bank works as a bilingual freelance journalist based in Berlin. As a news assistant for the Berlin Bureau of the Washington Post, she covers news in Germany and Europe, including the Covid-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine. She also writes and produces on arts and culture for various German media outlets and radio stations and interviews prominent German novelists in a podcast. She grew up in Germany and has lived in Latin America and a number of Middle Eastern countries.
Barbara Demick
Barbara Demick is an award-winning journalist and author with a specialty in foreign affairs. She was bureau chief for the Los Angeles Times in Beijing and Seoul, and previously reported from the Middle East, Berlin and the Balkans for the Philadelphia Inquirer. She is the author of three books, most recently Eat the Buddha: Life and Death in a Tibetan Town (which was named as one of the best books of 2020 by the New York Times, Economist, Washington Post and Financial Times) as well as Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea and Logavina Street: Life and Death in a Sarajevo Neighborhood. She was a press fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, a Bagehot fellow in business journalism at Columbia University and a visiting professor of journalism at Princeton University.
Demick graduated from Yale College. Her work has won many awards including the Samuel Johnson prize (now the Baillie Gifford prize) for non-fiction in the U.K., the Asia Society’s Osborn Elliott prize, the Overseas Press Club’s award for human rights reporting, the Polk Award, the Robert F. Kennedy award, and Stanford University’s Shorenstein Award for Asia coverage. She had been a finalist for the Pulitzer, National Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award. She lives in New York City.
Amara Aguilar
View complete faculty biographies on our Berlin Faculty Page.
APPLICATION, PAYMENTS, AND WAITLISTS
APPLICATION DEADLINE: Our formal deadline has passed, but we are still accepting applications for summer 2025 as long as spots remain available. Please review our application instructions and reach out to admissions@ieimedia.com if you have any questions. We are here to support you through the application process and are so excited to learn more about your interest in studying abroad with ieiMedia! If you have questions about applying, you can also start a conversation with us by clicking the Get Started button. Please refer to the Application Deadline Details for more information.
PAYMENT DEADLINES: see Payment, Cancelation and Refund Policy for information on deposit deadlines and amounts.
ENROLLMENT CAPACITY AND WAITLISTS: ieiMedia projects have a defined capacity limitation for applicants. Since there is a limited number of applicants who can attend, you can only be guaranteed a spot when you (1) have paid your Application Fee and (2) made payments on time according to the Costs and Payment Schedule. If a program has reached capacity OR you have not met the requirements for enrollments, you will be placed on the waitlist until requirements are met and capacity is available.
ACADEMIC CREDIT
Academic credits can be earned for this ieiMedia Project. Requesting course credit is optional. This course offers an option to earn upper-division journalism elective credits. The cost for academic credit is $150/credit. Students choosing this option must indicate so in their application. After applying, student will find procedures in our Student Portal to request academic credit through our school of record, University of Jamestown. NOTE: Students on a quarter system will be able to transfer as four(4) or eight(8) credits at no additional fee for ieiMedia courses that are listed as three(3) or six(6) credits respectively. Transfer credit ultimately depends on a student's home university. Please check with your university for procedures to follow when transferring credits to your institution.
Application Details, Travel Advisory, Financial Aid
Application Deadline Details
Our formal deadline has passed, but we are still accepting applications for summer 2025 as long as spots remain available. Please review our application instructions and reach out to admissions@ieimedia.com if you have any questions. We are here to support you through the application process and are so excited to learn more about your interest in studying abroad with ieiMedia!
If you do not have the necessary access to submit your application, please reach out to admissions@ieimedia.com to speak with an advisor.
Get started now to reserve your place or contact the ieiMedia Director of Admissions at: admissions@ieimedia.com
APPLICATION DEADLINE: Our formal deadline has passed, but we are still accepting applications for summer 2025 as long as spots remain available. Please review our application instructions and reach out to admissions@ieimedia.com if you have any questions. We are here to support you through the application process and are so excited to learn more about your interest in studying abroad with ieiMedia!
Travel Advisory
ieiMedia will be monitoring The US Department of State Travel Advisories and will provide status updates to those who sign up for the project regarding important information.
Financial Aid
Students studying abroad for the summer term have limited financial aid options, but Pell grant recipients are encouraged to apply and receive our help in applying for a Gilman Study Abroad Scholarship which can award up to $5,000. Check with your school’s financial aid office and your study abroad offices to find out if other assistance is available. For more information on financial aid, get started by connecting with us here.
QUESTIONS? Contact the ieiMedia Director of Admissions at admissions@ieimedia.com You can also schedule an ieiMedia advising session.
Past information session recordings and slides can be viewed here.
ACADEMIC CREDIT
Academic credits can be earned for this ieiMedia Project. Requesting course credit is optional. This course offers an option to earn upper-division journalism elective credits. The cost for academic credit is $150/credit. Students choosing this option must indicate so in their application. After applying, student will find procedures in our Student Portal to request academic credit through our school of record, University of Jamestown. NOTE: Students on a quarter system will be able to transfer as four(4) or eight(8) credits at no additional fee for ieiMedia courses that are listed as three(3) or six(6) credits respectively. Transfer credit ultimately depends on a student's home university. Please check with your university for procedures to follow when transferring credits to your institution.