Alumni Travel Program, 2027

How Porter alumni travel works

The trips are small: 20 to 30 travelers, one faculty host and one tour manager. The host gives short talks on the road and turns factory floors, rock outcrops and night skies into something closer to a class without homework. A licensed regional tour operator under contract handles bookings, payments, hotels and transportation. Alumni Relations picks the trips, recruits the hosts and goes along on the first day to count heads.

Trips are open to alumni, their families, friends of the university and retired faculty and staff. $100 of each traveler’s price goes to the faculty-led travel grant, which helps current students afford study trips of their own. In 2026 that came to $8,300.

The 2027 trips at a glance

Single rooms cost extra: $280, $580, $550 and $850 respectively.

The trips

Mill Towns and River Locks — May 18–21

Four days by motorcoach from the Welcome Center. The trip starts in University Archives with the newly acquired records of the Millrace woolen mill. From there it heads downriver to two restored gristmills, a working lock and dam, and a foundry town that still casts manhole covers. Renata Haddad, senior lecturer in the history of technology, will explain why every one of these towns has a Main Street that runs parallel to the water. Activity level: easy; some gravel paths.

Shoreline Week: Dunes, Lighthouses and Ore Docks — June 13–19

Seven days along the Great Lakes shoreline by motorcoach, with two nights in a lakeside lodge. Expect sand dunes, sea caves seen from a tour boat, a climb up a lighthouse and a tour of an ore dock still in use. Grace Whitfield, associate professor of geomorphology, will explain what the glaciers did and what the lake is still doing. Activity level: moderate, with up to three miles of walking on some days.

Dark Skies of the Western Plains — August 8–13

You fly from Lake City Regional Airport (airfare is extra on this trip), then spend five nights at a ranch lodge far from city lights. Days bring badlands hikes and a fossil dig site; nights bring telescopes the group brings with them. The dates catch the run-up to the Perseid meteor shower. Isaac Sato, associate professor of physics, sets up the instruments. He warns that if it is cloudy he will lecture on clouds. Activity level: moderate, with late nights.

Germany’s Machine-Tool Heartland — September 12–22

Eleven days with round-trip airfare from Lake City. The group visits a family-owned gear maker, a vocational training center where apprentices spend half of every week on the shop floor, and a technical museum. Free time goes to half-timbered towns and one day on a river cruise. Everett Fontaine, professor of manufacturing engineering, hosts and can tell you what a micron feels like. Porter students make a similar trip through the Berlin engineering exchange. Activity level: moderate. A passport valid through March 2028 is required.

Booking, deposits and cancellations

• Booking opens at 9 a.m. on Monday, November 2, 2026, by phone with Alumni Relations or through MyPorter. Last year two of three trips filled in under a week; there is a waitlist for each.
• Deposit: $400 per person ($600 for Germany), refundable less a $100 fee until final payment is due.
• Final payment is due 90 days before departure. After that, refunds depend on what the operator can recover. Travel insurance is offered with your confirmation and is strongly recommended.
• Accessibility: tell us what you need when you book. Motorcoaches have lifts. Some sites, including the lighthouse stairs and the dig site, have no step-free alternative, and we will say so in writing rather than hope for the best.
• Minimum group size: 14 travelers. If a trip falls short 120 days out, it is cancelled with a full refund.

For a weekend version without luggage, see the chapter outings on the alumni events calendar.