Hello – my name is Kara Mueller and I studied abroad in Copenhagen, Denmark in fall 2021 with World Partner program DIS Copenhagen. I’m graduating in 2023, majoring in Human Development and Family Science. Here are some questions and answers about life in Denmark:
Why did you choose this program?
- My major was the main component that led me to choose the Copenhagen program. Human Development and Family Science is a super small major so there were not many programs that adhered specifically to HDFS, so I looked to World Partner to find which programs best fit my major. Copenhagen had a Child Development and Diversity program and I thought that fit perfectly with what I wanted to study.
What were some interesting courses you took abroad?
- Child Development and Diversity in Education in Scandinavia: This was my core course which meant that this is where most of my credits were going toward. Every core course had two trips, one in another part of Denmark, and one in another country that fit our field of study. Having these core courses allowed us to get close with our fellow classmates which was a really cool aspect of the program.
- Child Development and Diversity in Education in Scandinavia Practicum: This class was an extension of my core course, but it was a placement for every student at a Danish school. We got to rank our preferences for what age group we would want to work with and had the options of infants, day care age, elementary age, or middle school age. I chose middle school because I want to work with adolescents in the future and I was able to work with 8th and 9th graders once a week in the countryside of Copnhagen. This was an amazing experience and a great way to get to know a very different part of Denmark since our commute was about an hour.
- Danish Language: This class was a Danish language and culture class. The language barrier was not bad at all because almost every Dane knows English, but it was still cool to be able to learn some Danish terms. My favorite part about this class was learning about the Danish entertainment industry. We read some Danish fairy tales and watched Danish movies and learned about how their culture is portrayed through their media.
- Positive Organizational Psychology: This course was all about psychology in the workplace. We learned about all different characteristics of work life that affect the personality of someone’s career. Balancing these characteristics and making well-being a priority helps work to be so much more pleasant.
What’s one of the best experiences you had?
- I met some of my best friends through this program. I loved the idea of going on a program by myself and meeting new people from different universities, and that is exactly what happened. It is such a great dynamic because we can now visit each other at our schools and meet each other’s friends. It is definitely strange adjusting back to school life that doesn’t involve them because we became so close, but I am so happy to have met them and be able to travel the world with them. Traveling and learning a new culture together is such an amazing way to get close.
Did you travel within or outside of Denmark during the semester?
- We had time for field trips every Wednesday which was a great opportunity for immersion and building knowledge about different aspects of our course content. My class went on a 3 day trip to Odense, Denmark, and a 6 day trip to Finland. We had meals together and were able to spend a lot of time as a class and learn a lot about each other. Every class did a 3 day trip to another part of Denmark, and a 6 day trip to another country, so everyone had the same amount of time to travel with their course.
What was your living situation like? How was the experience?
- I lived in a residential community which involved two floors of people and about 15 people per floor. Each floor had a shared kitchen, two common rooms, 2 bathrooms with showers and 3 bathrooms without. In my individual room, I had two roommates from two different schools. Everyone was spread out across the city and there were other living options like a host family, or in a Kollegium which involved local students as well as American students. I loved my living situation and all the shared spaces worked out so much better than I expected them to. It was a great way to meet people and work on living with others.
After college, I am definitely going to emphasize traveling, which I may not have planned on doing if it wasn’t for studying abroad. I would love to work abroad for a little while, or at least for an international company that allows me to travel for at least the first few years. There is so much of the world to see and it was so helpful to learn about the way different countries function and how it works for them.
Kara Mueller ’23
DIS Copenhagen
My name is Katie Blomkvist and I studied abroad in Strasbourg, France in the fall 2021. I am majoring in Public Health and Policy Studies and am graduating in Spring 2023. During my time in Strasbourg, I was an intern at the Council of Europe International Co-operation Group on Drugs and Addictions.
The Strasbourg Center had organized trips and activities for us to attend through the entire semester. With the school, I visited nine museums in Paris, dozens of waterfalls from glaciers throughout Switzerland, and Alsatian vineyards in the country. Partaking in these activities and trips was a way to connect with the other students in the program and to experience new cultures. On these trips, we were able to try traditional foods and drinks of the areas we visited. Eating crepes in Paris, fondue in Switzerland, and wine in the Alsatian vineyards was such a fun and unique experience!
In Strasbourg, all students live with a host family. In my family, I lived with my two host parents, Isabelle and Jerome. They have three children who are grown and out of the house but come to visit frequently. I had a very positive experience with my family. They helped me to improve my French and made me feel at home even when family was so far away. We would eat dinner together every weeknight and talk about how our day went. My parents and sisters came to visit me while I was away, and Isabelle and Jerome invited them to come over for dinner because they wanted to meet them. They were very kind and welcoming! My host family lived very close to a bus stop that I would take to school every day. The public transportation in Strasbourg, although intimidating at first, is very easy to use. There are buses and trams that you can take within the city and out to the suburbs as well.
¡Hola! I am Victoria Amado, a junior studying Policy Studies, Information Management & Technology, and Spanish Language, Literature & Culture. I will be graduating in the spring of 2023, and I had the pleasure of studying abroad in the fall 2021 semester in Madrid, Spain. To say it has changed my life would be the understatement of the century.
One of the things that are most important to me in life is dancing. While abroad, I knew I wanted to continue my training and learn new styles from the professionals in Madrid. Anxiously walking into a dance class in a new city was one of the scariest things I did abroad, but also the most rewarding. I ended up finding my home away from home, taking 2-3 classes a week from different Spanish choreographers, and loving every minute of it.
Hi – my name is Karen and during the summer of 2019, I spent my time interning at the Council of Europe in Strasbourg. The Council is an intergovernmental organization with 47 member states, working to promote democracy, human rights, and the rule of law within its jurisdiction and beyond. As I am working toward master’s degrees in both Public Administration and International Relations, this presented an opportunity for me to gain insight into both my areas of interest simultaneously. I had my office in the Agora building, which not only gave me great access to my team members and other interns, but also provided for a very interesting work environment overall.
My assignments were focused on various research projects relating to human rights, with the main emphasis being on environmental issues as these impact, and are impacted by, human rights. I also wrote speech drafts, proofread documents to be sent out and published, and took notes at different meetings. The most valuable experience for me during my internship, however, was the opportunity to experience how the organization functions. It was important to my supervisor that I get as much out of my experience as possible, which led to her encouraging me to attend different plenary meetings, sessions, and voting procedures. These areas were not directly relevant to my work per se, so I was not required to take notes and work during that time but was encouraged to just attend and take in the experience. Through these instances I also got the opportunity to network and socialize with relevant actors from my field during breaks and lunches, which gave me much insight into the world of international relations and thus complimented knowledge gained from the classroom.
My name is Levi Heath! I am an MAIR student and during summer 2021, I participated in three courses through the 
When studying abroad in Madrid, Spain some of my favorite experiences involved learning about and exploring different cultures within the context of another country. My name is Whitney Welbaum and I am graduating in December 2022. I am majoring in public relations with minors in Spanish and cultural anthropology. I chose to participate in the Madrid Summer Session 2021 to improve my language skills and to learn more about Spanish culture. What I did not expect was to also be able to experience the diversity of different groups of people also living in Madrid from other countries and cultures.
I first learned about the Lavapies neighborhood in my Spanish language and culture class. Lavapies is known as the multicultural neighborhood in Madrid, where you can find people from diverse backgrounds all living in the same area. In my class, we learned about the diversity present in Spain as well as the issues that come up during cross-cultural exchanges. My studies really helped open my eyes to the depth of cultural identities in Spain and how diverse cultures functioned in different contexts. I was also able to explore my own identity as a biracial person, I found it exciting to learn about Chinese communities living in Spain. Exploring my own identity and finding communities that I could directly relate to was a truly enriching and comforting experience.
Some of my favorite memories from my time in Spain are from exploring Lavapies. There were days where I would just wander the streets and alleyways of the neighborhood, stopping by shops that caught my eye. I was able to practice my Spanish with the shop owners while also learning about local artisans. Lavapies was also one of my favorite places to eat lunch or dinner, there was a wide variety of international foods to choose from. I was able to sample Indian, Greek, Japanese, and other international cuisines. I look forward to when I can visit the neighborhood again in the future, it is the type of place that I feel like I can constantly learn more from.
Hi! My name is Ezra James Capiral, and I studied abroad in London during the Spring 2020 semester. I’m a Television, Radio & Film major and will be graduating in Spring 2021. My time abroad was nothing short of life-changing. I seriously cannot think of another adjective to describe it, because that word so accurately describes my experience. Even though I was only abroad for a couple of weeks, and was cut short due to the virus outbreak, I made the most of my time abroad and do not regret the time I chose to do so.
Living on my own with no meal plan meant having to buy my own groceries and cook for myself, which in turn would also save money since eating out every day would not be within my budget. Taking public transportation every day to get to class and simply get around London was something I had to learn as well but after only a week or so, the Tube proved very easy to navigate.
In terms of academics, I can definitely say I was the most invested in my classes abroad than I have been throughout my time at SU. What I enjoyed most about my course schedule is the fact that at least half of the classes require you to venture outside the classroom, thus allowing learning through cultural immersion and exploration. While some of these field trips were led by the professor, a lot of them actually required you to travel on your own time, gather the information that you learn, and then report to the classroom the next day about your findings. Each day, and each week, I was constantly inspired by the academic material, and how interactive learning was highly encouraged through personal exploration and engaging conversations inside and outside the classroom.
Ciao, my name is John Mazza! I am a junior civil engineering major and studied abroad in Florence in the spring of 2020. The beginning of my abroad experience was incredible because I participated in the 
¡Hola! My name is Miranda Carlo, I am a junior at Syracuse University, majoring in International Relations and I will be graduating in the fall of 2021 semester. I studied abroad during my spring semester of 2020 in a Syracuse Abroad program in Santiago, Chile. I always knew, since high school, that I wanted to study abroad and that is one of the reasons why I chose Syracuse University. After I researched the different programs that Syracuse offers, I was between the World Partner program in Brazil and the Syracuse abroad program in Chile. I was debating between these two because I knew I wanted to go to South America, but the Chile program is completely taught in Spanish and Brazil is in English. I was extremely nervous and not confident at all with my Spanish, but I ultimately chose Chile because I really wanted to learn the language. In addition, this program has many other cool aspects such as the Signature Seminar and the Cuenca Immersion program in Ecuador. In addition, this program works very well with my major, all the classes I took were able to count for my major. I was not only studying cultures and politics that I was interested in but also allowed me to advance my academic progress.
Since my program was cut very short due to COVID-19, the majority of my semester abroad was spent in Cuenca, Ecuador for the immersion program. This part of the program is only required if you do not have all the necessary levels of Spanish completed and, as a sophomore, I knew I wanted to do this program to improve my Spanish for Chile. My cohorts and I took one Spanish class and did so many awesome activities set up by CEDEI (the school name in Ecuador) such as cooking classes, dance classes and long day trips on the weekends, my favorite one was when we hiked a mountain. We all had so much fun and were able to become more confident in using our Spanish.
I truly changed as a person from when I studied abroad. It was the first time I traveled by myself and I had to adapt to a lot of new situations that I have never experienced before. I feel like I have become more independent, less insecure and more confidant that I can handle uncomfortable situations. Overall, I always considered myself a pretty open-minded person who understand all different opinions and aspects of life; however, studying abroad has opened my eyes to so many new, ideas and perspectives that I would never have thought of before. I have never had so much fun learning and becoming a better version of myself.
There were many factors that led me to choose to study abroad in Madrid. I wanted to go to a program by myself (my roommates went to Florence) where I could make new friends and have my own experience. I also wanted to go a country that was warm and in Western Europe, so I could travel around that area more accessibly. Spain happened to check all of those boxes, which made it the perfect place for me to go.