Evan Kaplan
Q&A
"Have as much fun as you can and seize every moment. Try to make friends early and throughout the program and never feel like you are out of place. Everyone is going through the same experience, experience it with them!"
I wished to study abroad but could not do so during a normal term so the summer was best for me. I wanted to explore the culture of the world and experience living in a city abroad for an extended period of time.
I am Jewish and knew going into the program that I wanted to try to meet other Jewish people.
I would wake up and go to keynote speech and then have lunch with my friends/group. Then I would go into a work room to work on the project that we were tasked with: to create a startup. After, I would get dinner with my friends/team and hang out/party each night.
I took two courses, one which taught me know to become a leader and an entrepreneur and then the other taught how to make a startup from the ground up. These courses were very interactive, gamified, and project-based, a set of adjectives I wish applied more to Berkeley courses.
I don't believe I changed majorly but I was able to hone in on my sense to explore.
Traveling to the Azores with half of my cohort, experiencing the deep beauty that the islands had to offer.
I would say that dealing with the language barrier was a challenge but not a concern as it was merely instructional as I had to learn to communicate in different ways and through people who knew the language better.
Have as much fun as you can and seize every moment. Try to make friends early and throughout the program and never feel like you are out of place. Everyone is going through the same experience, experience it with them!