{"id":1422,"date":"2018-04-20T13:34:27","date_gmt":"2018-04-20T17:34:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/student-life\/?p=1422"},"modified":"2025-09-28T11:12:59","modified_gmt":"2025-09-28T15:12:59","slug":"study-abroad-spotlight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/student-life\/2018\/04\/study-abroad-spotlight\/","title":{"rendered":"Study Abroad Spotlight"},"content":{"rendered":"

Did you know that almost half of Miami students study abroad? With so many programs to choose from, lots of scholarships, great advisors, and our own overseas campus in Luxembourg, studying abroad is a possibility for anyone! We got in touch with a few students to share their own unique experiences while studying abroad in the past couple of years.<\/p>\n

Lauren Voegtle – Argentina and Cuba<\/h2>\n

\"Person<\/p>\n

My name is Lauren Voegtle. I’m a junior International\u00a0Studies<\/span>\u00a0and Latin American\u00a0Studies<\/span>\u00a0double major, and I\u00a0studied<\/span>\u00a0abroad<\/span>\u00a0in Argentina and Cuba. I\u00a0studied<\/span>\u00a0in Argentina for a semester with the International Student Exchange Program (ISEP) at Universidad del Salvador in Buenos Aires and spent J-Term in Cuba with the Latin American\u00a0Studies<\/span>\u00a0department.\u00a0My favorite part of\u00a0studying<\/span>\u00a0abroad<\/span>\u00a0was having the opportunity to create a whole life and develop a sense of home in a city on the opposite end of our world! I truly feel like Buenos Aires became my second home and I feel like the challenge of being so far from my friends and family really pushed me to be more confident, independent, and make connections with new people.\u00a0I never thought that I would see a glacier or go underneath a waterfall, but I had the opportunity to do both of these things on my trips to Patagonia and the Iguaz\u00fa Falls (my first natural wonder of the world!) during my time\u00a0studying<\/span>\u00a0abroad<\/span>! This experience contributed to my liberal education because it really pushed me to observe the world around me and make connections between the people I met, the places I visited, and what I had learned in my classes at Miami and at Universidad del Salvador. For example, I have learned in my classes about the informal settlements or shantytowns in the outskirts of Latin American cities, but I had the chance to actually volunteer in one of these communities as a service learning component to one of the courses I took\u00a0abroad<\/span>. This opportunity made me realize that what I\u00a0study<\/span>\u00a0isn’t just theory or words on a page, but real human experiences that deserve attention and thoughtful action.<\/p>\n

\n

Deron Clark – Costa Rica<\/h2>\n

\"Person<\/a><\/p>\n

My name is Deron Clark and I am a senior Zoology major with an Environmental Science co-major. During the summer of 2016, I participated in a field school in Costa Rica called “Danta: Association for Conservation of the Tropics.” I took a course called “Methods of Primate Behavior and Conservation” where I learned how to conduct field research on primates. I learned different field techniques and practiced them by observing the four species of monkeys in Costa Rica: white faced capuchin monkeys, red back squirrel monkeys, howler monkeys, and spider monkeys. We stayed at a research station in the Osa Peninsula where the conservation organization, Osa Conservation, also did research on a variety of things. We were able to learn about the things that organization does. I went to a night patrol with the coordinator of their sea turtle conservation program and we to find sea turtles laying eggs so we could move them to a gated nursery. We also did other things like visiting beaches, boat ride, and visiting a volcano crater.<\/p>\n

Jen Laufmann – Luxembourg<\/h2>\n

\"Person<\/a><\/p>\n

My name is Jen Laufmann and I’m a junior Marketing major from Pittsburgh, PA. I’m\u00a0studying<\/span>\u00a0at MUDEC (Luxembourg) for this spring semester and live in Luxembourg City, about an hour away by public transportation from the Chateau where I take classes. I’ve done a lot of travelling, since Lux is very small and centrally located, and have been to many places! So far, I’ve visited:\u00a0Brugge, Belgium, Strasbourg, France, Munich, Germany, Interlaken, Switzerland, Brussels, Belgium, Vigo, Spain, Porto, Portugal, Florence, Italy, Cinque Terre, Italy, Milan, Italy, Cremona, Italy, Venice, Italy, and Athens, Greece.\u00a0<\/span><\/span>My favorite part is definitely being able to travel every weekend. Since I don’t have\u00a0Friday<\/span><\/span>\u00a0classes, I’ve been able to see some places that I would not have been able to see with another\u00a0study<\/span>\u00a0abroad<\/span>\u00a0program. I also love that plane\/train tickets in Europe are so cheap, which makes travel easier for someone with a college student’s budget. The best part about\u00a0studying<\/span>\u00a0abroad<\/span>\u00a0is being able to see a new place, try new food, and experience a new culture, even if it’s just for a weekend.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
I was scared to learn how to travel by myself or even within a small group, since in the U.S. I had only ever flown with other people and had never used public transportation whatsoever. It was very scary and sometimes frustrating to figure this part out, but I’ve come a long way! Each day to school, I have to take a bus and then a train. Travelling, I’ve had trips where I’ve taken a taxi, Uber, metro, train, bus and plane, all in one trip- at this point, I feel like I can figure almost any system out. I think that a big part of getting a liberal education is being able to have a variety of experiences- and what better way to have a variety of experiences than to\u00a0study<\/span>\u00a0abroad<\/span>? I’ve had to learn how to communicate and interact with a variety of new people in new environments by using my past experiences, including some classes I’ve taken at Miami (German or international\u00a0studies<\/span>, for example).\u00a0Studying<\/span>\u00a0abroad<\/span>\u00a0means that you have to think on your feet and figure things out on your own, which is something that’s hard to teach in a class but is a valuable lesson to learn before graduation.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
—<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
With RedHawks ’round the world, there’s a program for everyone! Check out the study abroad\u00a0website<\/a>\u00a0to learn more!<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Did you know that almost half of Miami students study abroad? With so many programs to choose from, lots of scholarships, great advisors, and our […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2303,"featured_media":1426,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"_s2mail":"yes","footnotes":""},"categories":[53,55,52],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1422","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-life-at-miami","category-professional-development","category-student-success"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/student-life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1422","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/student-life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/student-life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/student-life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2303"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/student-life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1422"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/student-life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1422\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4890,"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/student-life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1422\/revisions\/4890"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/student-life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1426"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/student-life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1422"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/student-life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1422"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/student-life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1422"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}