Series of photos of Denise in England.

Denise

Major: Society & Environment; Political Economy

Q&A

What led you to study abroad? Why did you choose your country/program?

 I have always wanted to try living in another country and be immersed in a culture completely different than what I'm used to. I chose Summer in Cambridge because I have always been fascinated with the university and it is an English-speaking program, so I did not have to meet the language requirement that some programs have. Additionally, the summer term was a perfect introduction to studying abroad, as my program was only six weeks and I still had a full experience. In the future, I hope to study abroad for a whole semester and maybe in a country whose dominant language is not English.

Describe a typical day for you abroad.

 During the day, I had 2-3 classes, visited museums and the various colleges at Cambridge, ate at their wonderful cafes, chilled by the River Cam, and went shopping with friends. At night, my friends and I went to pubs and clubs.

What coursework did you take while abroad? How did courses abroad compare with Berkeley classes?

 The courses were definitely more rigorous than at Berkeley due to the crunched time period we had to learn the material (less than 6 weeks). We had many essays and dissertations to write. One similarity is that we had seminars (discussions) along with lectures. It was a small program made up of only a few hundred students, so class sizes were small and the community was tight-knit

What was the most memorable/meaningful aspect of your time abroad?

 England has a wonderful train system that is cheap for students and convenient. I was able to travel to many different English cities during weekends. Staying in Cambridge was great too, as it is such a lovely city.