What inspired you to go abroad?
In high school, I had the chance to tour across Italy with a group of peers and I found that I loved that style of travel; it instilled the travel bug in me. I knew that Freshman year, no engineering firm wanted to hire me since I had no experience. Coming into college, I had wanted to study abroad so I just took the leap and started packing!
The Vatican during sunset! We spent the better part of a day exploring the grounds.
Why did you choose Forum-Nexus?
Forum-Nexus provides the unique opportunity to travels across all of Europe and even plan your own trips during the weekend. On top of that, they schedule professional visits at places such as CERN and the Port of Barcelona making it easy to experience the differences between American and European organizations. A unique aspect of Forum-Nexus is your ability to do independent studies that are guided by professors in person and online. I studied photography since I knew I was going to be taking a lot of pictures. Though I cannot claim to be an expert now, you can definitely see the progress I made throughout the trip!
What was your favorite location you traveled to while on the Forum Europe Summer: Travel Around 9 Cities in 1 Month program?
Since we were traveling around, the favorite place I went to was Santorini, Greece during a weekend excursion. We, the students, planned it entirely by ourselves and it was an incredible experience! I had the opportunity to travel around the island of Santorini with a local who explained all the history and interesting places that were on the island; he even had his wife cook us a Greek dinner!
My time in Santorini, pardon the overused phrase, was honestly the best time of my life. I can vividly remember every aspect of that fantastic day, especially climbing up a 300 step donkey trail since taxis couldn't get down to the port! Fear not, fireworks started going off halfway through; so it was anything but boring!
Loire castle valley was a trip planned by forum-nexus; I highly recommend going to all the ones they organize for you! It is always fantastic and you learn so much about the history and culture of the area from a local tour guide that Forum-Nexus has used several times.
What made your experience abroad unique?
I think that the professors are what make this program so special. I enjoyed going to class each day, even if outside the door was a limitless amount of exploration. Everyday I went into Hugo's lecture, I learned something about European history or geography that helped me better appreciate the time I spent walking around.
When I went in to my Cross-Cultural Communication class, I could see first hand how important it is to do research on how businesses and people operate in different countries. Also, find me another program that will bring you in to CERN for a tour and presentation! I doubt you will find any.
How did local staff support you throughout your program?
They were priceless in helping us stay motivated and organized for each event we had. It was always a pleasure to talk to them about anything and everything. It should be noted that they would help with planning travel to different countries during the weekend.
What's one thing you wish you would have done differently?
I wish I had bought a SIM card abroad sooner! It is so much cheaper than buying an abroad plan from a provider such as Verizon; I recommend Vodofone.
This was the hotel view in Chamonix, France (I promise I did not photoshop the moon in there).
Describe a typical day in the life of your program.
Eat a lovely breakfast, have class, eat lunch somewhere nearby (different restaurant each time), have a second class, explore, eat dinner somewhere locally with friends (google maps is your friend), and then hang out and explore more! At the end of the day you will fall asleep as soon as you touch the mattress!
What did you enjoy doing in your free time?
Exploring with my friends! Imagine going to Barcelona and not seeing La Sagrada Familia?! It would be a travesty!
What was your accommodation like? What did you like best about it?
The accommodation for this program is top notch; which is another reason why I picked it. At each location you are staying in a centralized hotel that allows easy access to public transit or has many interesting places around it. For example, when we were in Chamonix, France our hotel had an incredible view of Mont Blanc! It looked surreal. The ending hotel was more of a resort on the beach of Rhodes, Greece and was a fantastic location to enjoy all the life-long friends I made during this program.
This was at the Berlin Wall; you would never have imagined it was there. Berlin was a weekend trip planned by some students and I.
What is one thing every participant should know before participating in your program?
Hugo is the most amazing and energetic person you will ever meet, hands down.
Now that you're home, how has your program abroad impacted your life?
Studying abroad has given me a renewed perspective on how cultural differences can help expand people’s understanding of each other and create stronger bonds. Now, as an admissions counsellor at my college, I promote study abroad to all prospective students.
Would you recommend Forum-Nexus to others? Why?
Most definitely, I did a lot of research on other programs, and if you want to travel during your time abroad, this is the best place to do it.
