Students begin interacting with policy practitioners during the fall semester as part of a series of virtual meetings throughout the fall with European and transatlantic professionals in Brussels, Strasbourg, Rome, Washington, DC, and elsewhere. These professional conversations complement fall coursework and enable students to see how the skills developed in this program are relevant to work conducted by government officials, policy advocates, think tanks, and others engaged in policy making. They also help prepare students to make the most of their academic study trip to Brussels, Belgium, during the middle of the fall semester. Brussels is home to the European Union’s executive and legislative branches: the Commission and the Parliament & Council.

In Brussels, the EUPS program gives students access to the main European institutions, through the organization of a number of exclusive meetings with politicians and policy officials. This provides a 360- degree view of decision-making. Students learn firsthand the intricacies of various policy-making procedures, work cultures, national attitudes and contested issues in the EU public sphere. Additionally, students are introduced to actors relevant to the EU's policy making and the transatlantic relationship through meetings with lobbyists, NGOs, and representatives of the US diplomatic missions and other international agencies. The academic excursion has an explicit career development focus, helping students to envision varied professional opportunities and to expand their professional networks.

The European Union is a political community of its member states with some governance occurring at the Union level while other decisions are made at the national, subnational, and local levels. Students in the EUPS program study and live in Italy, one of the founding members of the EU. The academic trip to Rome provides students with a chance to see all of these inter- and sub-governmental interactions unfold in one of the world’s liveliest capital cities.

In Rome, students meet with politicians, officials and practitioners within one of the most interesting member states of the Union. They have the distinctive opportunity to ask Italian Members of Parliament about the relationship between Italy and the EU, while also hearing the EU’s perspective from within the EU’s delegation to Italy. The role of diplomacy has been quite relevant in the history of the relationship between Rome and Brussels. Diplomats and experts on the EU’s history and politics will also be part of the interlocutors of the EUPS cohort in the Italian capital. The most impressive Italian city could not be left without having visited some of the notable political and archeological sites, such as the Parliament, the Bank of Italy, and the Roman Forum and Colosseum.