Provided

Cornell engineering majors studying abroad in Santander, Spain, and their Spanish classmates take a tour of the Ocean Engineering and Coasts Laboratory at the University of Cantabria, guided by Spanish professors Inigo Losada (leading the tour) and Jose A. Revilla Cortezon (foreground).

In the port city of Santander on Spain's lush northern coast, eight Cornell engineering majors are spending 2007-08 at the University of Cantabria, known throughout Spain for its programs in engineering.

The students -- the majority of them civil and environmental engineering majors -- are the first to participate in a pilot study-abroad program created by Cornell civil and environmental engineering professor Todd Cowen. The students are attending the Spanish university full time for a year. Like most Cornell engineering study-abroad programs, their required engineering classes will be taught in English.

Haley Viehman, a junior civil and environmental engineering major, jumped at the chance to study in Spain, particularly in a program designed to fit her academic needs.

"It was the perfect chance," Viehman said.

The program in these early stages is optimized for civil and environmental engineering majors, but there is some flexibility and room for growth down the road, Cowen noted.

"We saw this as a great opportunity to provide an immersion international experience for Cornell engineering majors, recruit Hispanic-American and international students, and as a natural fit in terms of civil and environmental engineering, and engineering in general, being a very important discipline worldwide," Cowen said.

The eight Cornell students are joined by eight Spanish students, who also are taking the engineering courses in English. The Spanish students will then spend their own year abroad at Cornell, creating a two-year experience for all involved, Cowen explained.

Cornell's College of Engineering offers a number of study-abroad opportunities at such institutions as the École Centrale in Paris, Tel Aviv University and Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.

In addition to their engineering courses, the Cornell students can choose one elective humanities course to be taken in Spanish. For those students with the language skills, the entire Cantabria course catalog is available, given the program's added flexibility.

"I think these are the ingredients that have made this program successful," said Deborah Cox, the engineering college's assistant dean for strategic planning, assessment and new initiatives.

Learning Spanish was a big draw to the program for some. Zaheer Tajani, a junior who is designing his own major around economics, government and engineering, wants to become proficient enough in Spanish to find work someday in a Spanish-language developing country.

"I'm delving into something I'm unfamiliar with," he said.

Cowen began thinking about starting such a program in 2003, just before spending a sabbatical year in Granada, near Spain's southern coast. While in Spain he and his colleague Iñigo Losada, a civil engineering professor at the University of Cantabria, worked to draft the proposal for the Cornell-Cantabria exchange program.

Though the curriculum will be rigorous, it won't be all work and no play: The students stay at a dorm minutes from one of Santander's many famous beaches.