IES Abroad Amsterdam Summer – Society, Culture & Gender

My time abroad with IES was life-changing! Traveling to a new country by myself made me so anxious, but IES did a great job of introducing me to where I was living and how to get around day-to-day. The trips they facilitated around the Netherlands and to Berlin were so amazing and ensured that we didn’t stay in our bubble for the whole summer. I also learned so much from the two classes I took that I can bring back to my home university! And they way we learned about Dutch culture through exploring Amsterdam allowed me to make connections that cannot only be made through reading textbooks. If I had the opportunity to study abroad again, I would absolutely choose an IES Abroad program, and I recommend it to anyone who wants a great opportunity abroad!

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I know everyone says this, but studying abroad changed my life. I was fortunate enough to spend summer 2018 (June - July) in the IES Abroad “Amsterdam Summer - Society, Culture & Gender in Amsterdam” program. Since I was about 8 months old, I have been travelling, but the Netherlands was never somewhere that happened to be on my radar of travel. Finding an opportunity to live in a city I had never visited and a program a discipline that wholly fascinated me was pure serendipity. While abroad, I took 2 courses: "Sex and Science: Dutch Medicine & intersexuality" and "Art, gender, sexuality in Dutch seventeenth century". These courses were unlike anything I had taken before. As Creative Arts student at Stetson University, I'm required to take arts courses outside of my discipline (Theatre), but I had never taken any courses in Art History, so I was anxious coming into my course, but Dr. Judith Noorman took all of my worries away. Dr. Noorman, or Judith to her students, is an scholar in seventeenth century Dutch art, and she blessed us with her plethora of knowledge. Taking this class was like no other: every other day we would go to a museum and get to present on a piece of our choice as though we were art historians. Being surrounded by art for an entire summer not only made me appreciate paintings in a complex and nuanced manner, but it recharged my creative battery before the school year. “Sex and Science” was a sort of medical ethics course, and what I enjoyed the most about that course is that Professor Van de Berg (Nina) was learning alongside us. As a self-proclaimed “fellow student”, Nina asked us to delve deeper than surface level with our answers and challenged us to consider our responses from not only from our typical perspective as Americans, but also as citizens of the world. Aside from loving the courses, the IES Abroad Amsterdam program offers trips to places such as Zaanse Schans, Delft, and even Berlin. Amsterdam is also a in a perfect location for independent travel. With an easily accessible airport and train system, I travelled over the weekends and even had an opportunity to visit a friend’s hometown who was an exchange student at my home university. If you are interested in studying abroad, I recommend going through IES Abroad: the staff members are helpful; the classes are informative, and the experience is unbelievable.

I had an amazing time with this IES Abroad program! The staff and teachers were very friendly, helpful, and welcoming, and the classes (I took the art history and literature courses that focused on gender studies) were interesting and incredibly relevant to Dutch culture. I learned things specific to Amsterdam and Dutch history by reading Dutch works and visiting countless museums. I enjoyed how many of our class sessions involved some sort of field trip, either to a museum, park, or other place. I was lucky to study abroad with a great, kind, open-minded group of students and made some great friendships. We had lots of free time to explore the city however we liked, and IES Abroad always helped us find places to go if we asked for help or advice. They made sure we knew the neighborhood's grocery stores, pharmacies, and home goods places so that we could feel comfortable right away. The housing was nice - a studio apartment with a small kitchen and bathroom - and located very close to the study abroad center. It was a bit further from the city center, but we could take public transportation, bike, or if we had a bit more time, walk to nearly anywhere in the city. I felt safe in the city, and loved the entire vibe of Amsterdam. We didn't have much interaction with local students or residents, however.

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I loved the IES Amsterdam summer program! All of the IES leaders were so wonderful and caring, my friends and I referred to them as our "Dutch Moms". We lived in an apartment building with other students in a more residential part of Amsterdam, which was so essential to feeling like we truly lived in the city. The teachers were so intelligent and insightful, and took us on field trips around the city and the country which were relevant to our courses.