We educate students to become global leaders through premier study abroad and internship programs, which offer students worldwide experiential learning opportunities that meet the highest standards of academic quality.

Everything we do is about the IES Abroad student.

We’re a passionate team of study abroad professionals who believe in creating once-in-a-lifetime educational adventures that transcend expectations.

We work at IES Abroad because we believe that every student should have the opportunity to go abroad—especially in a fun, safe, and superior academic and cultural environment.

We believe so strongly in the power of our program, that we actively recruit students from diverse populations and provide more than $4 million in scholarships year after year. We are proud that our students are as diverse and exciting as the countries they study in.

We’re not ashamed to admit, we're a little bit obsessed with study abroad.

Our History

We launched the first IES Abroad program in 1950, more than 65 years ago.

In September 1950, 23 American students boarded a ship to Vienna, where they would spend a year studying abroad in the Austrian capital.

They traveled with Paul Koutny, an idealistic Austrian student who envisioned the program while studying in the United States on a Fulbright Scholarship. Among those wide-eyed, eager students were Clarence and Alberta Giese, young newlyweds from Chicago.

The year abroad inspired the Gieses so deeply that upon returning home, they sold everything they owned and helped Mr. Koutny bring another group of students to Vienna—and then another, and another.

Today, more than 65 years later, the IES Abroad experience still elicits the same response from students as it did in 1950: that it irrevocably changed their lives.