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Students experience amazing geoglyph patterns in Northern Chile's Atacama Desert.

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Watch: Amanda Barker talks about her semester in Santiago, Chile.

The Fall program in Chile in 2008 will be an exciting new program that studies the effects of global climate change and global warming from a Chilean perspective.

Climate change has become a topic of great importance at a global level. The effects on marine waters, coastal border cities, polar ice caps, terrestrial ecosystems, and the economy have made global warming a theme that should be part of the university curriculum of all students, particularly those studying international relations and the environment. Global warming has become a key element in intergovernmental relations from the environmental, economic, and political points of view.

Given the nature of the global climate change problem - as it affects our shared planet's atmosphere - its solution can only be the result of international agreements. The increasing elements of economic globalization can create an opportunity to address these types of global environmental problems.

As a result of the Kyoto Protocol, established in 1997, there is now discussion in governments and national congresses about global warming. This has now been seen as a relevant landmark in the environmental agenda of many of these countries.

The various sources of greenhouse gas emissions as well as the multiple consequences of global warming make it necessary that this program take a clear multidisciplinary, ideally transdisciplinary, focus.

The Climate Change and Sustainable Development enclave program is based at the Universidad Diego Portales, the oldest private university in Chile and commonly regarded as one of the top private universities in the country. UDP has close relationships with local companies, and with the community and society at large. It is especially renowned for its Communications, Journalism, Public Relations and Advertising, Psychology and Law programs. The campus is located in the historic Barrio Brazil neighborhood, and is home to eight faculties (ie departments) and 9,000 students. Santiago enclave program classes are held on UDP's campus, and eligible program students may enroll in a regular UDP class of their choosing. Climate change and sustainable development enclave students may also participate in all regular UDP clubs, sports and campus activities.

Internships are an integral part of the enclave program. The two days per week spent at the internship provide students a unique opportunity to acquire real world work experience in their chosen field and interact with Chileans outside the academic context, while at the same time fulfilling academic requirements through the completion of projects and papers.

Students live in Chile's capital, Santiago, a city of five million which is bordered by the spectacular snow-capped Andes Mountains to the east and the nearby Pacific Ocean to the west. Beginning with a language and cultural orientation program, Santiago program participants spend their first few days becoming acquainted with the host culture and reviewing their Spanish language skills.