Student_Highlights
Student
Highlights
Kiira Anderson
Class of 2007
Majors: Asian Studies
and Studio Art
Experiences Studying
Abroad in Fall 2006
My favorite memories from India are from the month I spent at a retreat
house in a medieval neighborhood in New Delhi. It was just a
five-minute walk from the tomb (dargah) of Nizamuddin Aulia, one of the
most revered saints of the 13th century! I was learning the
art of Urdu calligraphy, during which time I got a basic introduction
to both the written and spoken forms of the language. It was such
a great opportunity to learn an art form that differs so much from the
Western artistic tradition. In my free time I was surrounded by a
living Sufi tradition, and the time I spent at the dargah each night
was very powerful.
My semester abroad enriched and made more holistic my studies of South
Asia, and through its challenges I learned a lot about myself, gained
strength and was humbled—opportunities for growth that I would have
missed in my comfort-zone back home. All of my credits from India
counted toward my Asian Studies major, and the best thing about the
Area and International Studies Program, is that I never had to take a
class that I didn’t want to just because it was a requirement.
The interdisciplinary nature of AIS concentrations enabled me to
combine my two areas of interest—art and religion—with a focus on South
Asia, and gave me the freedom to discover my passion for Asian Art
History. My classes at UVM prepared me for my semester in India
and also helped me to form an independent study project that related to
my previous studies and interests, ultimately enabling me to get the
most out of my time there!
_____________________________________________________
Bill Petersen, Class of
2006
My name is Bill Pettersen and I graduated from the University of
Vermont (UVM) in May of 2006 and am now in my first year at the
University of Illinois College of Law. I majored in Political
Science and minored in Economics at UVM. I also took many courses
in the Russian Area Studies Program and I studied abroad at St.
Petersburg University in St. Petersburg, Russia during the spring
semester of 2005. Although I had countless wonderful experiences
during my four years at UVM, the semester that I spent in Russia was by
far the best of my college career.
The amount I learned of the Russian language and culture during my
semester abroad was even more than I had dreamed possible. I had
only taken three semesters of Russian language at UVM prior to leaving
for Russia. My professors at St. Petersburg University told me,
however, that my Russian language skills were better than many of my
peers from other universities, some of whom had taken a year more of
Russian than I had. This was a testament to the language courses
that I took in the Russian Area Studies Program at UVM, which prepared
me extremely well for my travel abroad. My vast improvement in
the Russian language was also due to the fact that I lived with a
Russian family in St. Petersburg, who spoke no English at all.
Aside from cooking breakfast, lunch, and dinner for me, as well as
cleaning my room every week, my host family took a very active role in
teaching me the Russian language. I personally recommend living
with a host family, as opposed to a dormitory, when studying in Russia,
as I learned an extraordinary amount about the language and culture of
the country from my family.
Even more striking than the amount of language, history, and culture I
learned from my semester in Russia was the amount of personal growth
that I experienced during my stay. Living in a county in which it
is difficult at times for you to communicate is a very humbling
experience. It can be very difficult at first to do many of the
things that you take for granted back home, such as grocery shopping
and taking a bus or taxi somewhere. Nonetheless, I found that
these situations tested my strength and patience in a way that I had
never felt before and were greatly rewarding in the end. Everyday
in Russia was better than the last. As I began to understand more
of the language, I was quickly able to converse more fluently with
people on the street and in the club. With each conversation that
I had, I learned more about the Russian culture and people. After
these conversations I would often think about how much my language
skills were improving, yet what I didn’t realize at the time was that,
through my interaction with the Russian people, I was discovering a
powerful new understanding of myself and my own country’s history and
culture.
The great success that I found during my stay in St. Petersburg was due
in most part to the preparation that I had done through the Russian
Area Studies Program at UVM. Not only was the training in the
Russian language outstanding, but the professors in the program gave me
a strong sense of the Russian life and culture through many different
books, articles, and in-class discussions. The immense knowledge
and interest that the professors in the Russian Area Studies Program
possess for Russian language, history, and culture prepared me
extremely well for my semester abroad in St. Petersburg. The
semester that I spent in St. Petersburg was the time of my life, and I
strongly recommend anyone and everyone who is interested to study
abroad in Russia and to study at UVM in the Russian Area Studies
Program.
_____________________________________________________
Anna Olson
Class of 2007
Making the Most of Regional
Differences:
Studying Abroad in Augsburg, Germany
As a European Studies and German major,
my junior year abroad in Augsburg, Germany was time well spent. Built
in 1970 and located just outside the town center, the University of
Augsburg is one of UVM’s official partner universities, as well as one
of Germany’s few universities with a true campus. To an American
exchange student with plenty of other concerns for settling in at the
start of the school year, it was at least a relief to be able to find
the offices and classrooms I needed in one compact space. The
university might be modern, but Augsburg, a city of 276,000
inhabitants, is Germany’s second oldest city. It has a vibrant cultural
scene and nightlife, and offers a less hectic, more neighborly
alternative to the nearby metropolis of Munich.
I was enrolled in the Philological-Historical (Humanities) Faculty. My
classes generally met once a week for two hours, and grading consisted
of either a final comprehensive exam for introductory-level courses or
an oral report and term paper for seminars. While lecturers and
professors are not quite as attentive to students’ overall progress as
in the States, they do appreciate when students make an extra effort to
drop by during office hours to introduce themselves or ask questions.
Instructors are used to working with international students; about 10%
of the student body consists of foreigners. Though students come from
all over the globe to study in Augsburg, the diversity of the student
body most strongly reflects the open student exchange policies of the
European Union.
During my yearlong stay in Augsburg, I took advantage of the extensive
offerings in European history and language, such as a seminar on the
local history of Bavaria-Swabia. In Germany, as in most of Europe,
there are many small regions, each with its own distinct subculture,
and it was interesting to see how many students my age were drawn to
studying local history, as well as how much regional pride and
awareness are embedded in German life. For language instruction, the
university has a separate faculty that offers German courses for
non-native speakers, in addition to instruction in other foreign
languages for all students of the university. An informal way to
improve your conversation ability, as well as to establish contacts
with German students, is to seek out German “language tandem partners”
to give you hints on vocabulary and grammar in return for advice on
their English.
Like most foreign students, I made the most of my time abroad by doing
a lot of traveling. Various student groups organize activities for
foreign students, like city tours, weekly discussion tables, and very
affordable, well-organized weekend excursions. In addition, Augsburg’s
excellent location on major train and bus lines and its close proximity
to the Munich airport made traveling convenient. However, as the year
went on, my travel bug became less persistent as I became more
interested in the subculture of my own host city. During my second
semester, I was even able to divide my time at the university with an
internship at the city tourism office. There, I learned about German
business structure, event organization, and even how to answer the
telephone “German-style.”
My study abroad experience was an ideal bridge between the little
picture and the big picture; university life and regional culture
contrasted with national culture and European unity. Identifying and
appreciating these differences is as important to my time away as
improving my German, adjusting to university bureaucracy of another
color, learning to bag my own groceries, or maneuvering public
transportation—all hefty challenges in their own right!
Last modified May 09 2008 03:02 PM
