Global Mental Health in Rwanda: Study Abroad and Internships

Study abroad or intern in Rwanda with GEI's full-time in-country team. Three programs in one track, a three-week field course, a four-week practicum, or the full eight-week summer, plus a career-aligned internship, with U.S. academic credit through Hamline University, GEI’s school of record.

Track: Global Mental Health
Destination: Rwanda
Programs: Short-Term, Summer, Internship
Dates: January, Summer
Credit: 4 to 8 U.S. credit hours through Hamline University, GEI's school of record
Eligibility: Any field and level of study

The Global Mental Health track explores how communities, health systems, and institutions respond to mental health challenges in different cultural and social contexts. In Rwanda, students examine the social determinants that shape mental health and wellbeing while engaging with local practitioners, advocates, and community organizations working to strengthen mental health systems and services. The track combines interdisciplinary coursework with experiential, community-engaged learning, and it is open to students at any level of study.

The programs emphasize applied, field-based learning rather than classroom instruction. Students learn through site visits, community-based activities, collaborative projects, and guided reflection. Field engagement shows how mental health care and support operate within a specific social and cultural context, and what ethical, culturally responsive mental health practice looks like.

Spend your days inside a mental health system that was rebuilt from the ground up, from Kigali's community mental health programs to the village-level support that reaches the hills, alongside the people who run it
Work alongside a Rwandan community mental health program or social service organization on a challenge it is tackling right now, from a youth program to an outreach campaign
Join GEI's Mentally Fit Schools initiative and, with Rwandan students and mental health specialists on your team, take a school through assessment, staff training, and a plan it keeps
Study how a country that lived through the 1994 genocide built community-based healing and mental health care into its recovery, and what that teaches about resilience
Rwanda beyond the field: Kigali's markets and music with your cohort, a safari in Akagera National Park or a visit to the Kigali Genocide Memorial where your program includes them, and free weekends to explore on your own

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Short-term program

3 or 4 weeks, January or Summer, 4 credits

Summer Program

8 weeks, June and July, 8 credits

SEMESTER Program

15 weeks, Fall or Spring, 16 credits

INTERNSHIP Program

4, 6, or 8 weeks, January or Summer, 4+ credits

A structured field course, taught in the field: six themed modules (foundations, social determinants, community-engaged interventions, systems and advocacy, trauma and resilience, applied project development), a community-engaged learning project with a module host organization, and assignments that build the competencies of global change leaders.

A cohort working inside a GEI flagship initiative, not a placement. Your cohort joins one of GEI's international development initiatives, works in one interdisciplinary team with local student peers, and sees its project through to completion. Global Mental Health students carry the core of the project: taking a school through a mental fitness assessment, whole-school awareness work, staff training with mental health specialists, and the responses the assessment calls for, handed over as a written plan the school keeps. The initiative continues after you leave. Current mental health initiative in Rwanda: Mentally Fit Schools

Kinyarwanda, three to four classes a week with a local language school, plus field activities from market visits to a cooking lesson with a host family. Runs alongside the Independent Study Project.

Four kickstart days on methods and ethics, then your own project on a question that matters to a local organization, supervised by a local faculty member. A weekly Capstone Seminar with your cohort, a research paper, and a final presentation of your project and your Capstone portfolio. In the Global Mental Health track, projects typically work with a community mental health program, a school, or a social service organization on a question it needs answered.

Your Capstone runs through the whole program. You collect the work that shows your development across your courses, from field assignments to project findings, into a digital portfolio and present it at the end of the program. The portfolio is a requirement for the certificate.

A supervised internship with a host organization in one of the Global Mental Health fields: community mental health programs, social service and family support organizations, and psychosocial support NGOs, in areas from school and youth programs to family services, community outreach, and advocacy. You are matched to a host by your level of study, skills, and preferred field, with a placement description agreed before you arrive. Placements are non-clinical: interns support programs and people within the host's rules and their own scope of practice, and do not provide treatment. The course opens with four orientation days and adds three professional development site visits across the country's mental health and social services landscape, three cultural activities, a weekly meeting with your supervisor, a reflective journal, and a placement report.

There are no prerequisites for the study abroad programs. Students can be enrolled in any major or minor and at any level of university study. GEI tries to place students in cohorts with similar levels of study, which is not always possible. The Internship Program is generally open to sophomores, juniors, seniors, and graduate students who have a theoretical foundation in their field, or by consent of the faculty sponsor. The Global Mental Health track suits social work, counseling, psychology, and human services students in particular.

GEI programs follow U.S. academic culture and standards. The pace is accelerated, the workload demanding, and the U.S. grading scale of A to F applies. What you hand in depends on your courses.

Global Field Engagement: 6 module assignments in small groups, active participation in the community-engaged learning project, a weekly reflective journal, blog, or vlog, and a project report.
Global Practicum: Active participation in the initiative, a weekly reflective journal, blog, or vlog, and a project report.
Summer Program: In addition, a Capstone portfolio presented at the end of the program.
Semester Program: In addition, the Language Intensive Course assessments, and in the Independent Study Project a research paper and a final presentation of your project and your Capstone portfolio.
Internship Program: A minimum of 40 hours a week at your host organization, a weekly meeting with your supervisor, a weekly reflective journal, blog, or vlog, and a placement report with two or three work products.

Each study abroad course carries 180 contact hours and 4 U.S. credit hours (about 8 ECTS): 4 credits for the Short-Term Program, 8 for the Summer Program, and 16 for the Semester Program. The Internship Program carries 4 or more U.S. credit hours depending on its length. Credit is awarded through Hamline University, GEI's school of record, which issues the transcript, unless you receive credit via your home institution. The Summer Program leads to the Certificate in Global Mental Health and the Semester Program to the Certificate in Global Engagement with a concentration in Global Mental Health. Check with your academic advisor how many credits your degree program accepts.

All courses are taught in English. In the Semester Program you also study Kinyarwanda in the Language Intensive Course.

The Land of a Thousand Hills is one of the great development success stories of our time. Three decades after the 1994 genocide, Rwanda has rebuilt itself into one of Africa's safest and best-organized countries, with more women in parliament than anywhere else in the world and a health system that other countries now come to study. In mental health, Rwanda is a country that had to rebuild care after collective trauma, and did it from the community up: mental health services in district hospitals and health centers, community health workers trained to recognize distress, and healing practices rooted in Rwandan life.

Fieldwork in Rwanda's mental health landscape
Students engage directly with Rwandan mental health practice: community mental health programs, schools, social service and family support organizations, psychosocial support NGOs, and the professionals who work in them, seeing how a community cares for its own wellbeing.

A practicum inside a real development initiative
In the Global Practicum, your cohort joins one of GEI's international development initiatives in Rwanda, works in one team with Rwandan students, and sees its project through to completion. The initiative continues after you leave.

Mentored reflection and peer learning
Weekly colloquia led by GEI faculty and local facilitators guide students through reflection on ethics, cross-cultural engagement, and systems thinking.

Cultural immersion and weekend exploration
Daily life is part of the learning: local food and markets, Rwandan music and dance, and Kinyarwanda practice. Depending on the program, organized excursions include the Kigali Genocide Memorial or a safari in Akagera National Park, and free weekends are yours to explore the country.

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Housing is included in the program fee for the full length of your program. GEI Rwanda offers different options, subject to availability:

Guesthouses: Shared double rooms, shared bathroom, no kitchen; breakfast is usually provided
Homestays: Typically single rooms, shared bathroom, access to a kitchen and living room; host families usually provide breakfast and dinner
Serviced apartments: Single or shared double rooms, shared bathroom, kitchen and living room
University residence halls at GEI's partner universities: Shared double rooms, shared bathroom, no kitchen

Students in guesthouses, apartments, and residence halls cover their own meals outside course meals. More in the blog post: Accommodation – What to expect.

Included in your program fees

Tuition
Housing for the full length of your program
Pre-departure advising and orientation
Airport meet and greet on arrival
GEI's full-time in-country team and 24/7 emergency support throughout
Course-related activities, site visits, and excursions, including transportation, guiding, and selected meals
Cultural activities and optional events
Health insurance for the program dates

Not included in your program fees

International airfare and travel to and from Kigali airport
Visas and immunizations
Meals other than those included in course activities
Personal expenses and items of a personal nature
Medical costs beyond what the health insurance covers
Weekend travel and other discretionary spending

RWANDA

STAFF

GEI's full-time team in Kigali hosts and supervises every cohort.

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