Tag Archives: study abroad

Mid-Semester Slumps

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So far, studying abroad has been so much fun. I have met so many new people from all over the world, many of whom I hope to stay in contact with when we all return to our respective universities back home in the states.This past weekend, I got to visit one of my very best friends at Oxford University, where she is studying for the year. We explored London the first day that I arrived, then traveled to Oxford where I stayed with her and got to explore the town and campus. It was so much fun to see where she is studying and to walk around a campus that is hundreds of years old.Often, after traveling, it can feel like a let down to return home, where all of your responsibilities are there waiting for you. Although I was happy to return to Dublin after my time visiting my friend, I definitely felt this way, finding myself with a long list of things to accomplish and little motivation to get them done. At some point in the middle of the semester, most students at the 5C’s, and on campuses all across the globe (including Trinity!), feel a sort of slump, where a lack of motivation takes hold and is hard to reignite.

I have tried to reconcile this and have come up with a few reasons that I think the middle of the semester is particularly difficult. First, you are no longer excited by all the new opportunities that the new semester brings. You have settled into a routine on campus, you’ve seen your friends after being apart for three months, and you classes are in full swing. Second, you are still far enough away from the end of the semester that, if you do start looking towards that date in December, you might just make yourself feel more hopeless than before (see Michael Scott’s face below). 

I’ve come up with a list of a few things that may help get you motivated and push through this sluggish time in the semester. 

  1. Get enough sleep. This is the most important, in my opinion, because sleep determines so much of how we feel and how well our day goes. I can almost always make a direct correlation between the amount of sleep I get and how productive, focused, and overall feeling of wellbeing during the day. If you don’t get enough sleep, you are likely to get less work done, in addition to it being of lesser quality, at least, that’s been my experience in many cases.
  2. Engage with the texts and homework assigned to you! If you don’t understand something, ask! Try to find things that interest you in the text or note particular concepts that excite you. If you can actively engage with your work, you are more likely to stay motivated and finish your work. 
  3. Know your study habits and know when to call it a day. There are often times when I find myself pushing to finish a chapter or a set of notes, when I should really just press pause and come back to it later. It these times when eyelids are heavy and focus is wavering that it often pays to just come back to it later, whether you decide to go to bed or simply take a break.

Hope everyone is enjoying the sunshine in Claremont and continuing to push through this sluggish time in the semester!

STEM Abroad

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I know that most people are looking forward to fall break, but I am in the midst of my third week here at Trinity and am just getting settled into my classes, or so I thought. Prior to coming to campus, I intended on taking two biochemistry courses, which were approved by the department head at Keck and by the SAGE office at Scripps. I was excited to have the opportunity to take science courses at a larger university and experience a different environment in lectures and in labs. What I found out after registering for the courses, was that the courses were designed specifically for international students and would not have any lab portion to them. 

At first, this was exciting news! I wouldn’t have to take any labs, in addition to my lectures, which would mean more free time during the week and less time in class. What I began to realize as I mulled this over, was that I might have a harder time getting these courses approved by Scripps, now that I had this new information.

For science courses, they generally need to align with another course at Keck in order for them to transfer and replace a specific course. I was hoping that my course entitled “Protein Structure” could take the place of “Biochemistry” at Keck, but would only cover about two thirds of the content at home, so would not be eligible for a direct replacement. The other course, entitled “Cell and Membrane Biology” was similar; there was not enough overlap between it and “Cell Biology” at Keck. Additionally, there is a lab portion required for the course at Keck, but not for international students at Trinity. In any event, I ended up having to drop these two courses, trading them in for two English courses, which I am very excited to be taking. The moral of this story is that often, study abroad programs are not tailored to science students, and there are very few places where the expectations for assessments and labs will match up with those at Keck or other universities in the United States. That was another factor in my decision to drop the courses. At Trinity, you take one final at the end of the semester, and that decides your entire grade. To me, that sounded very stressful, and quite frankly, I am glad that I don’t have to go through that experience.

As of now, my schedule is much more free, but I know that I will be very busy fulfilling my major requirements when I come back in the spring. Although it may be stressful to be taking more science courses at the same time, I think that it would’ve been more stressful to try to adapt to the system that they have over here, in regards to assessments.

Studying abroad has presented many challenges already – getting used to a new registration system, learning the ins and outs of navigating a larger campus, and learning to feel comfortable with 150 other people in a lecture hall – but I’m excited by the opportunities I have had so far and am interested to see how I feel about science after a semester off from it.

Post Grad Planning while Adjusting to Studying Abroad

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Hello Scripps! I apologize for my hiatus this week. As I’ll discuss further in my post, many schools do not follow our standard when it comes to registration, which can make things very stressful and time-consuming, hence my lack of a post.

I landed in Dublin on Friday the 15th and was greeted by a man in a green sweatshirt who ended up taking me and the thirteen other people on my program to their housing accommodations. That first day is truly a blur, as I was running on about four hours of sleep and trying to cram an obscene amount of information into my brain, all important and all regarding my stay in Ireland. One thing to take away from that was to sleep as much as you possibly can on an international flight. Even if you don’t feel tired, you will be so much better off if you’re as rested as possible.

The next few days were better; I could feel myself retaining more of the information that I was given, I was sleeping through the night, and I was adjusting to my new living space. I am living in an apartment with a roommate and two other flat-mates. My roommate and I get along so well and I’m pleased to report that I don’t think we will have any major issues. But, if we do, I feel that Scripps has prepared me well to combat those issues and discuss them in a respectful and inclusive way. This past week was orientation week, where students register for classes and clubs, entitled “Freshers Week” here in Ireland.
As I mentioned earlier, the registration process is much more traditional than what we experience at Scripps, and even though we often find our process stressful, this experience has brought a whole new level of appreciation for the way Scripps handles registration. At Scripps we can register from the comfort of our desks or beds, commiserating with friends as we do so, but here at Trinity, each class must be physically signed off on by the professor teaching the course.

  vs.  This means that much of the day is spent walking to and from buildings, hoping professor will be in their offices and that they will bestow their signature upon your registration sheet. Although it is much less convenient, it was a great way for me to get to know the campus better and to learn more about the departments I would be taking classes in.

I know that there are many stages of the study abroad experience, and I know that I am still in the honeymoon phase. That means that there will be a point where I don’t feel as excited to be here, and I’m trying to mentally prepare myself for when that time comes. Even though that’s very hard to do, I know that I have a great support system here in Ireland, and back home, that will help me through those feelings.

While I’m enjoying getting settled in my new place and program, I know it’s important too keep moving forward on my post graduate plans and have started a pro/con list about Medical School which I’ll share in an upcoming post. 

For those interested in studying abroad, either at Trinity or elsewhere, please don’t hesitate to reach out to me. I would love to talk to you about it, or put you in contact with someone else who might know more about a specific program.

Study Abroad Shenanigans

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When I was a sophomore in high school, my high school chamber choir went on a concert tour of Ireland and we visited Dublin to sing in St. Patrick’s Cathedral. I remember going on a walking tour of Dublin and seeing signs for University College Dublin and thinking that it would be so amazing to go to college in Ireland. Although I am not going to school there full time, I will likely be studying abroad there in the fall of 2017, which is equally as exciting. Thanks the study abroad office at Scripps, I will (hopefully) be in Ireland at this time next fall.

Most people ask sophomores if they are going abroad for their junior year, and often, the answer is “Yes!” or “Of course!” What is sometimes forgotten in this exchange is that, even though most students from the 5Cs are approved for their requested programs, students still have to apply to go abroad. Once that becomes clear, you might wonder:

First, you attend an information session with the head of the study abroad office, Neva Barker, where she will lay everything out for you: when applications are due, how to get credits to transfer back to Scripps, and your options for countries to study in.

Then comes the fun part where you can start researching the different programs that are offered and the ones that are pre-approved by Scripps. You have the option to petition if you want to study through a program that isn’t pre-approved, and the petitions are always due before the applications for pre-approved programs are. Much of the application covers the classes that you will be getting credit for while abroad and getting signatures from a professor in that specific department, which tells the registrar and the SAGE office that a specific class will satisfy either a requirement or will count towards graduation credits.

This was definitely my favorite part and I loved looking up the classes that I could take in other countries. To narrow down where you might want to study, students often look for a program that has classes in their major, or a place that they know they have always wanted to visit. Everyone has different reasons for studying abroad, but I know that I want the experience of not only living in a different country, but going to school there and experiencing science classes in a completely new environment.

Although it can be very exciting, thinking about studying abroad can seem like an obligation, and especially if you are on financial aid, it may seem impossible to make the finances work. You might feel like this:

but there are so many options and ways for Scripps to help you pay for a study abroad experience. Neva Barker is amazing and can help you figure out what would work best for you and your financial situation. If you feel obligated to go abroad, or you feel like this when people ask you,

maybe you shouldn’t, or you should really give it some serious thought, and it’s totally okay if you decide it’s not right for you. Many students choose to stay because of sports or other prior obligations, and all reasons are totally valid. If you feel you cannot go because of major requirements, I will tell you that it is 100% possible to go abroad, even if you’re a science major, I’m doing it and I know many others who have as well. If you are interested in learning more, you can contact Neva in the SAGE office, or contact me! Good luck to those who are applying to programs and good luck to everyone in this final (I can’t believe I’m saying this) stretch of the semester!

 

 

The REAL”F” Word: The Future

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I’m not going to lie, I’m pretty nervous about finding a job after graduation. In fact, I’m only just starting to come to terms with the fact that I’m actually quite terrified about finding a job after graduation. This is largely due to the fact that conversations about the future still freak me out, even at my ripe old age of 21 (the word ‘mortgage’ actually makes me shudder, I kid you not), and I’m definitely still having a difficult time dealing with the fact that this really is my last year here at Scripps. It seems like just yesterday I was receiving my first roommate assignment in the mail (and subsequently “researching” them on Facebook for the rest of the day), buying all my dorm room essentials from Target, and getting ready to start my life as a first year in college. How could that possibly have been 3 years ago? I can’t even begin to visualize what my life will be like in 3 years time, let alone what I’ll be doing this same time next year.

Of course, I definitely have an idea of what I’d like to be doing this same time next year—how I go about achieving this goal, however, is the daunting, looming dark cloud hovering over the far-off land that I lovingly refer to as “my post-grad future.” I, like many other Scripps students, had the opportunity to study abroad the fall semester of my junior year, and I, like many other Scripps students, fell deeply and irreversibly in love with my study abroad experience—so much so that I want to return abroad as soon as possible. I was lucky enough to study in London, at Queen Mary University in London’s East End, and to say I simply ‘miss’ it would be the understatement of the century. My sharp cravings to go back to the East End are a daily—if not hourly—occurrence; ones that not even the best of my #tbt photos or nostalgic journal entries can easily assuage. I dream of nothing more than going back and walking alongside the canal, saying hello to the outrageously rude (but very pretty) swans that block the path, stocking up on the few items I can cook with using my very limited knowledge of the culinary arts at my local Sainsbury’s, and hopping on the tube and taking a stroll down to St. Paul’s Cathedral at dusk, taking hundreds of pictures of the 4 pm sunset and annoying my abroad friends by trying to get the shot just right. If you’ve ever met me in person, you will very likely already know all of this already—apparently I have a hard time keeping quiet about how much I loved being abroad in London, and how serious I am about returning ASAP.

With this in mind, I attended a CP&R Workshop called “Send Me Abroad (to work!)”—as part of the incredible “Life After Scripps” event series that is currently happening on campus—and boy am I glad I did. I learned so much about how to go about finding a job abroad, let alone finding one that will accept me, and how to begin the seemingly impossible task of securing not only a job across the pond, but also housing, the correct visas, travel plans, and a livable compensation for the work I will (hopefully!!!) be doing.

One of the key takeaways from this meeting was to be focused and goal oriented: it’s not easy to pack up shop and move across the world, but if the motivation and the desire are both there, it definitely won’t be as difficult. I now have a better idea of how I can visualize my goals of moving back to London and use that as the driving force to keep me on-task. I also learned in the workshop that breaking this whole process down into more doable, smaller steps is the key to keeping up the hunt for a job; but really, this advice can be applied to pretty much anything you do, especially something as intimidating and logistically-complicated as planning out your future goals and executing them. Additionally, I learned that one can never do too much networking. Seriously. Networking is the best thing you can ever do, and although it’s kind of formidable and sometimes feels weird, learning how to do this now will absolutely have you better prepared for life in general.

Does this mean I am completely at ease about my own future and the career path I want to pursue? Especially one outside of the United States? Absolutely not……..not even close. But, I am definitely starting to visualize how my overwhelming desire to move back to London and work there will benefit me in this endeavor down the line–like when I am inevitably faced with rejection, complication, and even some sheer bad luck. I know that this is not going to be easy, but I also know that if I’m willing to put the work in and maintain my focus, the payoff that will come with the perseverance necessary in pulling this off will make it all worth it–even if it doesn’t quite feel that way right now.