In Cooperation with the
UNIVERSIDAD DE LEÓN

5-9 Weeks in Spain
June 21 - July 24, 2010

With additional 4-week internship opportunities (ending around August 20, 2010)

NERJA , GRANADA, SEVILLA, CÓRDOBA, TOLEDO,
MADRID, SEGOVIA, ÁVILA, SALAMANCA (Orientation),
LEóN, ASTURIAS, CANTABRIA AND GALICIA (Courses & Field Trips)

León's Cathedral

The Summer Institute of Hispanic Studies, in cooperation with the Universidad de León, is pleased to announce the 2010 session of a special five week summer program of study in Spanish language, literature, art and culture. Following the classical pedagogical philosophy and practice of "utile et dulce," the SIHS has for the last eighteen years attracted superior students from the most prestigious American colleges and universities. These outstanding participants are the Program's greatest asset. In 2010, at the suggestion of the institutions that regularly send students to SIHS, we are starting an additional 4-week internship program for students with superior command of the Spanish language at the end of SIHS, as an opportunity to practice what they have learned and to experience on their own Spanish labor and/or culture in a variety of fields.

Available to undergraduates (and others by special arrangement), the Summer Institute of Hispanic Studies opens with Orientation headquarters in the quaint, beach-side village of Nerja, where students enjoy a culturally unique, seven day experience amidst the artistic and historical wonders of the Arabic, Christian and Jewish melting pots of Madrid, Toledo and Andalucía, and the marvels of Roman Segovia and of Salamanca and its ancient university. Orientation is followed by regular classes, independently organized and monitored, at the Universidad de León. Besides the culturally rich variety of sites, the Program adds five other, curricularly integrated field trips: to Oviedo and the sights of Spain's first Christian kingdom and the breathtaking Picos de Europa mountains (2 days); the Pilgrim's Way to Santiago de Compostela timed to coincide with the Holy Pilgrim's Way festivities (2 days); the Roman and Gaudian urbs magnifica of Astorga (1/2 day); the Mozarabic church of San Miguel de Escalada and the Romanesque Monastery of Gradefes (1/2 day); and the remarkable Valporquero Caves (1/2 day). A free weekend is made available during the time of the famous Fiesta de San Fermín or Running of the Bulls in Pamplona. In recent years students have applied what they learned in León to visit on their own the one region of Spain not covered in the summer plan of excursions: the eastern coast (e.g. to experience the artistic wonders of Barcelona, the works of Gaudí, Picasso, Miró or Dalí, and the bustling street life of Las Ramblas).

St. Isidoro's Royal Pantheon in León

The SIHS was founded in 1992 by the Directors of the Hamilton College Academic Year in Spain to be an independently operated academic and cultural program. The primary goal of the SIHS is to immerse students into a Spanish speaking environment and integrate them as fully as possible into Spanish life and culture. The SIHS is not geared to individuals who want to go to Spain simply as mindless, fun-seeking tourists, but towards, responsible, inquisitive, college and university students who want to learn in an academic setting, be immersed in a different culture, and communicate constantly in Spanish. To this kind of participant, the SIHS promises both the enjoyment and intellectual experience of a lifetime.

Although not affiliated with Hamilton College, the SIHS duplicates, within the framework of an intesive, summer program, the many academic, cultural, and administrative factors which made the Hamilton College year arrangement unique among all American programs operating in Spain:

1. a faculty composed of the finest professors from the Spanish academic community;
2. the strictest adherence to a Spanish-only rule (for which each student signs a pledge);
3. the very highest academic standards, through extremely small, intellectually demanding classes;
4. a rich variety of activities and field trips designed to assure ample contact with Spanish students and with varied aspects of Spanish life and culture.
5. lodging with Spanish families, carefully chosen by the Directors, to insure further integration into the social and linguistic environment of Spain;
6. meticulous attention and guidance to the academic, social, cultural, and emotional needs of each individual student.

SIHS '05 Camino de Santiago