Students in Colorado Mountain College Professor Bob Gumbrecht’s Current Political Issues class this fall will explore the Cuban revolution in the 21^st century and get the chance to visit the hard-to-get-to country located 90 miles from the United States.

“The theme of the class is the Cuban Revolution in the 21st Century, and we’re going to learn about the past, present and future of the Cuban Revolution through the lived experience of the Cuban people,” Gumbrecht said. “We’re going to learn that story through interactions with the Cuban people themselves.”

Carrie Click, public information manager for Colorado Mountain College, wanted to make the entire Steamboat Springs community aware of the opportunity before the Monday deadline to apply for the class. Fee for the trip is $3,000, which includes meals, lodging, international travel insurance and local transportation. Airfare, tuition for those receiving credit and other fees such as immunizations or passport fees are not included.

An informational Zoom meeting at tinyurl.com/y8cuy8dc about the Cuba experience is scheduled for 6 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 28.

The application deadline is Monday, Sept. 1, with course registration and payment due Sept. 5. Those interested can visit tinyurl.com/4wuyh2tc for details or contact Gumbrecht at rgumbrecht@coloradomtn.edu, 970-870-4484.

Click said that Gumbrecht, a professor of social and behavioral sciences at the college, has taught many classes abroad, and has been to Cuba in the past. She said he has connections and access to places that can be difficult to visit in today’s stressed political environment.

“He’s been to a lot of places including Nicaragua and Guatemala,” Click said. “These kind of trips are his forte, but (the trip to Cuba) is a super unique situation that is open to anybody in our district.”

The course is designed for both students and interested community members to experience the history, culture and the good and bad of ongoing political realities in Cuba, as part of a guided tour. Those completing the trip can receive transferable college credit, but community members may forego tuition fees and audit the course, which begins Oct. 23 and meets four times before the trip.

“The class itself is essentially just a vehicle for the trip,” Gumbrecht said. “It’s a very open-ended class as you can imagine from the title, and the four class meetings before the actual trip allow us to get situated and learn some of the basics about Cuban history and politics — and of course, talk about all the logistics of the travel.”

The 11-day, 10 night-trip is scheduled for Nov. 21 to Dec. 1 and will include visits to Havana, as well as the resort community of Varadero.

Students paying tuition will receive transferable college credit after completing the trip, but community members may forego tuition fees and audit the course. The trip will give participants the chance to meet and interact with a variety of Cuban people and to speak with diplomats at the U.S. Embassy. There will be trips to museums, the Afro-Aesthetic Experience, as well as visits with artists, schools, clinics and an organic farm.

Click was excited about this unique trip to Cuba, and feels that it fits well into Colorado Mountain College’s study abroad programs, which offer immersive international experiences. They also offer the chance to study in places around the world including Brazil, Argentina and New Zealand this December.

“We don’t really advertise it a lot,” Click said of the study abroad opportunities. “I like the fact that it’s under instruction, and there’s an educational component, so you get that background instead of just kind of wandering around not really knowing what’s going on.”