The LSA+ program in Santander, Spain, is led by a faculty member of the Spanish and Portuguese department.  Students live with Spanish-speaking families for the entire term.  Each family hosts only one international student.  The program offers SPAN 20 (Writing and Reading: A critical and Cultural Approach), SPAN 22 (Modern and Contemporary Spanish Artistic and Cultural Production), and SPAN 32 (Introduction to Hispanic Studies III: 20th-21st Centuries).   Occasionally, the program may offer SPAN 30 or 31. 

These curricular offerings are complemented with 8 weekly field trips to explore nearby Santander sites of cultural, sociological, and anthropological interest.  Students visit world-renowned landmarks like the El Castillo and Altamira Caves (both are Unesco World Heritage Site) to study Paleolithic painting and engravings, visit the Atapuerca dig, one of the world’s most important active research sites for paleontologists; enjoy discovering Romanesque and Gothic buildings and churches; hike and star-gaze in the Picos de Europa National Park, the first mountain range sea travelers saw when reaching Europe from across the Atlantic Ocean, to study the culture and customs of its inhabitants, enjoy a Spanish dishes cooking class, as well as walk parts of the Camino de Santiago along the Santander coast-line. The ​program centers on making interconnections among the environment, culture, and society.  Students also partake on a three-day trip to Madrid and a weekend-long cultural trip to the neighboring Basque Country region.   In the Basque Country students visit the Guggenheim Museum-Bilbao, an architectural marvel, and hike the seacoast at San Juan de Gaztelugatze.  In Madrid, in addition to savoring city life, students visit world-class museums like El Prado and the Reina Sofía Museum of Contemporary Art to see paintings like Velazquez’s La meninas or Picasso’s Guernika.