Being immersed in another culture, language and environment causes your brain to develop greater functionality, in that it develops new skills and absorbs information in new ways, making study abroad a highly effective method of experiential learning. Living for several months in another country requires you to speak the language and to participate in the culture to a degree much more intimate than anything you would do on your home turf.
An internship or practicum enables you to apply classroom knowledge to "real world" situations in a professional environment. For example, students studying medicine or marketing discover that actually performing the tasks of a marketing executive or an emergency room physician elucidates challenges and rewards they might not have previously recognized. The investment of these students and the practical application of skills facilitates experiential learning, guiding them in the next phase of their educational or professional path.
Sometimes called community-based learning, engaging in community service within the student's brings relevance to textbook theories and principles. Unlike an internship, community service highlights the importance and affects of compassion regardless of the academic background. For example, a student interested in studying business would volunteer with an organization that awards micro-financing loans to immigrants starting small businesses. A student interested in teaching would volunteer at an underfunded public school. Choosing to serve an area of the community fosters emotional investment in service, and creates a meaningful experiential learning experience.
Students passionate about a particular area such as micro-biology or socio-political psychology, discover that conducting their own research study is a meaningful and invigorating form of experiential learning. Because the topic and depth of their research is self-directed, students learn the minute but critical details involved in successfully conducting academic research. Experiencing the experiment design, process, drawbacks and results of their research requires students to analyze concepts and to draw their own conclusions. Experiencing these components of research within their own experiment or study makes the learning experience meaningful and engaging.