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The University of Akron School of Law’s 2024 study abroad program will spend two weeks in South Africa and Botswana, including Cape Town, South Africa, shown here.

The University of Akron School of Law has confirmed a two-week summer 2024 Study Abroad Program trip to South Africa and Botswana, May 17-June 3. Activities will include visits to historic sites, local attractions, courts, meetings with officials, a three-day safari, and lectures from local lawyers and academics. Akron Law’s hosted study abroad trips are exclusively for current Akron Law students.

“This is an amazing opportunity to visit three cities and one national park in two remarkable countries,” said Patrick Gaughan, assistant dean of global engagement and associate professor of law.

“The trip will be led by Akron Law Professor Mark Schultz (Goodyear Endowed Chair in Intellectual Property Law and director, Intellectual Property Law and Technology Program) and Christopher Behan, a professor at the Southern Illinois University School of Law,” Gaughan said. “They have led a version of this course and trip together on three previous occasions and have each visited both countries several other times to lecture and teach. They have a particularly close working relationship with the local bar in Gaborone.”

The program begins with five classroom days of a 3-credit summer intersession course in Akron taught by Schultz and Behan. Students will learn about the history, culture, legal systems, economic development and natural resource management of the two countries. The classes will include guest lectures from South Africa and Botswana via Teams, and relevant films will be shown.

The group will depart for Johannesburg on Friday, May 17, and spend May 18-20 there, followed by five days in Gaborone, Botswana. The group will return to Johannesburg for May 24-26 before heading to South Africa’s Kruger National Park for a safari, May 26-29. The last stop will be Cape Town, on the country’s South Atlantic coast, May 29-June 2. Students will have free time to explore each city the group visits.

Schultz elaborated on the places the group will visit:

• <”Johannesburg, the capital of South Africa, has grown into one of the world&srquo;s great cities. It is the site of much important modern history, good and bad, with the apartheid era embodying the worst in human nature and the end of that era embodying the best with acts of great bravery and tremendous grace. We hope to introduce the students to people who played a heroic role in that history.&drquo;
• “Kruger National Park is one of Africa’s greatest and largest wildlife reserves. It covers an area about the size of the state of New Jersey, and wildlife has been protected within its borders for well over 100 years. Visitors are afforded the rare opportunity to see nature in its pristine state and rare animals in their natural habitat.”
• “Cape Town is South Africa’s second largest city, renowned as one of the most beautiful and cosmopolitan cities in the world. Americans are usually reminded of the best aspects of coastal California in one small region.”
• ^ldquo;Gaborone is the capital of Botswana. When Botswana became independent from Britain in the late 1960s, it was a pastoral society with a largely cattle-based economy and just one-half mile of paved road. Today, it is a modern, educated and rapidly growing middle-income country. It managed this transition through an unbroken record of peace and stability.”