Romania Semester
During Northwestern College's Romania Semester, you'll experience both the beauty and challenges of a country shaped by its communist past. Even though communism in Romania ended in 1989, the country still struggles with corruption and low community involvement.
As part of the program, you'll work with New Horizons Foundation of Romania, which partners with NWC in offering the Romania Semester and helps Romanian youth build confidence, teamwork, and trust through adventure education and service-learning.
You'll also take classes on Romanian culture, history and language; live with a local family; and go on a mountain backpacking trip to one of Europe's top backpacking destinations.
Application deadline for fall 2026 program:
March 20, 2026
Romania Semester
During Northwestern College's Romania Semester, you'll experience both the beauty and challenges of a country shaped by its communist past. Even though communism in Romania ended in 1989, the country still struggles with corruption and low community involvement.
As part of the program, you'll work with New Horizons Foundation of Romania, which partners with NWC in offering the Romania Semester and helps Romanian youth build confidence, teamwork, and trust through adventure education and service-learning.
You'll also take classes on Romanian culture, history and language; live with a local family; and go on a mountain backpacking trip to one of Europe's top backpacking destinations.
Application deadline for fall 2026 program:
March 20, 2026
Romania Semester
During Northwestern College's Romania Semester, you'll experience both the beauty and challenges of a country shaped by its communist past. Even though communism in Romania ended in 1989, the country still struggles with corruption and low community involvement.
As part of the program, you'll work with New Horizons Foundation of Romania, which partners with NWC in offering the Romania Semester and helps Romanian youth build confidence, teamwork, and trust through adventure education and service-learning.
You'll also take classes on Romanian culture, history and language; live with a local family; and go on a mountain backpacking trip to one of Europe's top backpacking destinations.
Application deadline for fall 2026 program:
March 20, 2026
You'll spend much of your time in the city of Lupeni, where you'll live with a Romanian host family and build relationships with local youth through various service-learning projects. Lupeni is located in the southeastern area of Romania, approximately 200 miles from Bucharest, the country's capital.
Dr. Dana Bates serves as the primary faculty member for the Romania Semester. He is the co-founder and executive director of New Horizons Foundation, based in Lupeni, Romania, and holds a doctorate from Oxford Centre for Missions Studies at the University of Wales. Other faculty and staff include various New Horizons personnel and additional Romanian scholars who will be involved in the classroom components of the semester.
As a participant in the Romania Semester, you'll take courses in Romanian history, culture, language, and community development—some of which meet requirements for Northwestern Core (general education) curriculum. In addition, the semester fulfills the 16 elective credits of the cultural studies minor.
Northwestern's Compass Center staff will book airline tickets to Bucharest, Romania, making arrangements that in most cases will allow students to fly together as a group. Northwestern students will receive a $1,200 stipend to be used for airfare. Non-Northwestern students will be responsible for the full cost of their airline tickets. Generally, all in-country transportation costs will be covered by the program or via a per diem.
You'll spend part of the semester living with Romanian host families—one of the best ways to experience local culture and language. Meals will be provided when you're with your host family or on a program excursion. Upon completion of the homestays, you will be housed in New Horizons apartments and responsible for your own meals unless on a program excursion. You'll camp and join other Romania Semester participants in making your own food during the Retezat National Park backpacking trip.
In addition to a backpacking trip in beautiful Retezat National Park, you'll enjoy a variety of sightseeing trips. Typical destinations include Hunedoara Castle, a monastery in Prislop, and Timisoara, Cluj-Napoca and Bucharest.
The program fee for the Romania Semester is the same as Northwestern's on-campus semester costs. Included is tuition for 16 credits, in-country transportation, housing/homestays and meals for orientation and program excursions. All applicable Northwestern College financial aid applies.
Students are responsible for these additional expenses:
- Airfare costs (Northwestern students receive a $1,200 stipend to be used toward airfare)
- Books ($100 to $150)
- Passport and passport photo
- Required wilderness excursion gear
- Immunizations/vaccines
- International insurance
- Individual travel and spending money
- Meals when you are housed in New Horizons Foundation apartments
Upon acceptance into the program, a $250 deposit (cash or check made payable to Northwestern College) will be required to hold your spot. This deposit will be applied to the final program fee.
Northwestern College sophomores, juniors and seniors with a minimum GPA of 2.5 are eligible to apply. This program is also available to non-NWC students as space is available. The application deadline is March 20, 2026.
- Application for NWC students (must be logged in to MyNWC)
- Please note that the application will open in November 2025.
- Application for non-NWC students
- Non-NWC students must fill out a guest application to Northwestern and be accepted before applying to the Romania Semester program.