In 2022, MUFL students visited one of the world's most sustainable cities—Freiburg, Germany. Photo by Ryan Senechal
The program enrolled its first students in the fall of 2021
and was originally conceived as a one-year, full-time
experience. As of 2024, 19 students have graduated
with MUFL degrees. Already, the program has nimbly
responded to the needs of applicants who work full
time by developing a two-year, part-time offering; in
August of this year, 13 students enrolled in that option.
MUFL Program Director Sara Barron says that through
the travel abroad experience and other means, the stu-
dents become quite close. "Through online meetings,
there's an intimacy to being together from our homes
and offices, with our cats, dogs, or children some-
times in view—or in some cases, with people joining
from their work vehicle on lunch hour," she says. "The
teaching team takes care to leave time in our ses-
sions for casual conversation, because socializing is
important for building camaraderie and community."
The travel abroad experience provides MUFL students
the richness of being together in exhilarating places—
and affirms the value of online learning. "I remember
being surprised and delighted witnessing, on that first
trip abroad, how close people already were when they
'met' one another in person," Barron says. "That close-
ness only grew as we'd spend, for instance, a whole
day relaxing together in a sustainability-award-winning
neighbourhood. We would observe the way that others
use the community spaces but also allow ourselves
time to be immersed in the experience of the place."
Barron says that each cohort can join a WhatsApp group
for mutual support, and all graduates are invited to
attend—and most do—the capstone project presenta-
tions of subsequent participants. "They connect across
years," Barron says. "It's exciting to see the alumni body
grow and be supportive of one another," she says. >>
ucfsociety.org 21
