IFSA Victoria University of Wellington Partnership

Studying abroad in New Zealand was a fantastic experience. At Victoria University Wellington, I got to choose from a wide range of courses that would fulfil my course requirements for my school in the US. The classes challenged me but the workload was light enough that I had ample time to travel and experience my new city and community. I lived in an International Student Housing Flat with two other international students (one from Italy and one from South Korea) which was a great experience. Wellington is a fun city with lots of great food and art. I would highly recommend New Zealand to anyone who loves hiking and other outdoor activities.

Studying abroad with IFSA in Wellington was one of the highlights of my college career. Not only is New Zealand an amazing country, but Wellington is the coolest, windiest capital city at the bottom of the world. The Victoria University of Wellington (Vic) has about 22,000 undergrads, which, coming from a liberal arts college of 4,000, was pretty big. But international student orientation made registering for classes easy and I got all the courses that I needed to transfer back home. Class sizes are usually pretty big, but half of mine were less than 30 students, and large lectures usually break down once a week into a smaller group with a tutor (some attendance at these sessions is mandatory). International students have a special housing division and live in houses and flats (apartments) in the neighborhoods near the Kelburn campus - my house was less than a 5 minute walk from the main campus. Living in Wellington is cool - the Botanic Gardens are beautiful and there's a ring city park in an arc around the city, plus getting further outside the city to nature is super easy. Bars, cafes, Cuba Street, surfing if you want it in Lyall Bay - I don't think there's anything about Wellington I don't like. Wellington is grungy and has the coolest vibe of any city I've ever been to - in case you couldn't tell, I love Welly a lot. IFSA made sure that my entire experience was incredible, from before I even got to the country until I left. There's an option to take a group flight to Auckland from LA where everyone meets before the 4 day orientation. I ended up going on my own and meeting everyone there before we went to a natural park only an hour outside Auckland for four days of sailing, kayaking, mountain biking, ROGAIN, and lots of muddy tramps around the grounds. We learned about Maori culture and New Zealand slang, among more serious orientation topics before spending the night at a marae (traditional Maori gathering house). IFSA was great throughout my semester in Wellington, with weekly meet-ups with our local advisor Hannah, who always brought us cool food and organized cool events like taking us to volunteer removing invasive species in the bush before a hike, to the World of Wearable Art show in Wellington, and sailing and white water rafting on a weekend trip to Taupo.

I truly enjoyed all aspects of my study abroad experience. The entire process was made very manageable through IFSA-Butler. The pre-departure team was an amazing resource to turn to with any questions before leaving. They assisted me in picking my courses and aided with the visa application process. Once in country the IFSA organized orientation was an amazing way to begin my abroad experience. Fighting through the jetlag they organized a great array of different cultural and informational activities and events to ease the transition. My experience studying at Victoria University was great. I was able to take types of classes not offered at my home university. I especially enjoyed the IFSA organized events throughout the semester. These events were some of my favorites during my time in New Zealand. They were all very different experiences but equally enjoyable. Lastly, I loved having an IFSA staff member in Wellington and extremely accessible to us at all times for any problems we faced while abroad. IFSA-Butler made my abroad experience less stressful and ensured an amazing abroad experience.