My name is Jaymie Sanders, and I am a junior at the University of Montana studying Cognitive Neuroscience. I have always been inspired by history through the many books I read and wished to incorporate my love of learning with traveling. Greece was my top place that I wanted to go to because of its culture and history, as well as their involvement in aiding refugees. Before studying abroad in Greece, I have never traveled outside of the United States. For the majority of my life, I have stayed in Missoula and because of this, I wanted to learn from a different perspective than what I’ve already been exposed to. It is critical for me to learn from other people and different cultures so I can broaden my understanding of the world. That is why I chose Inequality and Human Rights as my GLI theme because there are a lot of humanitarian crisis’s we face today that need to be addressed through understanding and learning. Misinformation is the key driver in ignorance.  

Studying abroad in Greece allowed me to see a different culture and their lifestyle. Greeks are always walking outdoors in the sun, swimming in the ocean, and eating outside. Greece had a very social setting that I was not prepared for. Being more introverted, this experience really pushed me out of my comfort zone. Initially, after I settled down in my new apartment, I felt a mixture of homesickness and excitement. I felt so silly for being sad and longing home as much as I did. I missed the mountains, my support system, and small things that you never recognize in your day to day life–like knowing where to go in town to get certain groceries or being able to drive your car. But after a few weeks, once I found a routine, I completely fell in love with Greece and this study abroad experience. Integrating yourself with a random group of people, being forced to ask questions and ask for help, was an eye-opening experience for me. I got to travel to four Greek islands (Aegina, Paros, Santorini, & Zakynthos), travel to historical temples, and visit the most beautiful beaches. Being alone in a foreign country, with no guide except trusting yourself, creates a kind of independence that I have never experienced.

I was blessed to be able to travel to many other cities while abroad; I went to Budapest, Paris, Amsterdam, Edinburgh, Milan, Venice, and Rome. I fell in love with the food, the different cultures, and the art. Seeing the rich histories in person was surreal and I came into each country with no expectations, just enjoying my journey. Being very much an itinerary person, I had a list of sites I wanted to see. But as I traveled, I learned that taking each day with a grain of salt created lifelong memories. You do not need to see every touristy site and burn yourself out to get a fulfilling experience; simply being present and taking moments to walk around and find yourself in a completely different place than you imagined, makes this experience unique to only you. One of the most memorable moments I still think about, is when my friend and I traveled to Zakynthos for the weekend, we took a tour of the island with a group from the UK and we visited a historical park that had a mini amphitheater. Our tour guide taught us how to perform a traditional Greek dance and we were all holding arms, dancing in a circle laughing. I will never forget memories like those, solely a unique experience with amazing people.

While I was abroad, I took a psychology course for diversity and social issues. This class provided me a different perspective of how Greeks view racism and discrimination. Just like the United States, they have their own social issues that affect minorities in their society. The Greeks take pride in their country and history and are traditional in their nature, yet they are also humble and welcoming to foreigners. During this experience, I was able to see a different culture’s perspective on politics and social justice issues and see how their values and beliefs aligned to how they treat others. Through this beyond the classroom experience, I wish to carry this value of connecting perspectives to reach a greater understanding between cultures in my capstone project.

My name is Halley Linscheid, I’m a Senior at UM getting a BFA in Media Arts with an emphasis in digital filmmaking. Before college, I took a gap year, and my traveling was cut 10 weeks short because of Covid. For that reason, I already felt somewhat trapped moving to Missoula and wanted to go somewhere huge compared to here for my Beyond the Classroom Experience. I originally wanted to study abroad but there weren’t many film programs available in English, and since I have always wanted to live in New York, one of the best places to study filmmaking in the world, I thought it would be the perfect fit to spend my semester there. When I arrived in New York I had an image of it that is shared amongst many people who have never been to such a large and romanticized city. After a few days, I started to understand what it was really like to live there but ended up loving it all the same, just for different reasons. I was able to do a lot of things I wasn’t able to do in Missoula like create relationships with a wide variety of people, eat a ton of different types of foods, go out to large shows, comedy events, and museums, be truly on my own, see a different perspective on filmmaking, and gain connections that could help me move back to New York if I choose to pursue filmmaking there.

New York was perfect in many ways. Although it’s nice to be back in Missoula, and it’s much easier to live here than there, I miss New York very much and more every day! Surprisingly, one of the things I miss the most is sitting on the Subway for longs period of time, which you definitely can’t find in Montana (-:

Me biking across the Williamsburg Bridge on my last night in New York.

My name is Marissa Harper, and I am a junior majoring in Management Information Systems and International Business. I am half-Japanese, which influenced my decision to minor in Japanese and study abroad in Japan for my Beyond the Classroom experience. As the largest city in the world, I thought there would be no better place in the country to study my global theme, Technology and Society, than Tokyo. I have visited Japan many times to visit my relatives growing up, but it was my first time visiting Tokyo and living in a big city. Never could I imagine a place that combines traditional culture with modern technology as this city does, and I am truly grateful for the invaluable opportunity I was given to experience this for the past 6 months.

My first couple of months here was overwhelming to say the least. The metro system may have been the most difficult thing for me to grasp, and almost 6 months later, I still find myself getting on the wrong train! I felt underprepared and lost, and I found myself too scared to speak with others in fear of messing up my Japanese. Fortunately, I was able to meet people in my dorm soon after moving in, and I made some lifelong friends who helped me overcome my worries and made this place feel like home. We took lots of photos in photobooths (photobooths called Purikuras are very popular, even though they look kind of scary!), ate at lots of cute cafes and restaurants, visited shrines and temples across Tokyo, made sure to get our years worth of shopping done, and even went to a few concerts (the last one I went to was Bruno Mars).

Despite the whole country being the size of Montana, Tokyo alone has enough to see and do to last a person for years. Of course, that is not to say that I did not travel outside of Tokyo during my exchange. I visited Kyoto and Osaka with my friends during the fall break, where we rented kimonos for a day and explored areas like Gion (the Geisha district) and Arashiyama. A couple of us went to visit Hokkaido for a weekend in December. My friends went to the hot springs for the first time, and one of them saw snow for the first time as well! Finally, I went down to Nagasaki and Fukuoka in Kyushu, which is where my relatives live, to celebrate the New Year. It was my first time spending the New Year in Japan, and it was just as big of a holiday as Christmas is in the US.

Though there was no doubt that the food and sights in Japan were amazing, what really made this experience memorable were the people I met along the way. I got to see my family who I had not seen in years, made many new friends that I will cherish, and even met countless kind locals who have made me feel welcome. People in Tokyo seemed quite used to foreigners, especially compared to those I met in Nagasaki and Fukuoka, and they made sure to be very patient with me when I struggled to say something, which helped me overcome my fear of talking and open up.

Japan was both a familiar and new environment, and not only did I learn more about the country, but I also learned a lot about myself and identity. I am so grateful for the people and experiences I encountered, and though I almost wish I could have stayed longer, I will go home satisfied, knowing I got to thoroughly enjoy my time in Japan. Japan is a collectivist society, and what I learned from that is that people look out for each other. The technology, from translated self kiosks to something as common as the train or bus, are designed by people, for people. I want to embody this value of collectivism within technology in my capstone project, because it is amazing to see what people and technology are capable of doing when they work together.

Hello! My name is Emma Hasquet and I spent my Beyond the Classroom Experience studying abroad this past 2023 fall at Aberystywth University in Wales. I studied wildlife conservation as I am studying wildlife biology at UM, and focused on marine biology to help tackle the challenge of looking into local ways to combat climate change. My university was in a coastal town, so it was the first time I was able to experience living by an ocean for an extensive amount of time. The courses taken at the university were also fairly different than the ones taken at UM, with assignments being far fewer, yet more extensive in nature, so that took some getting used to. However, the professors and courses taken were very interesting. For instance, I took a GIS class that involved us mapping Ouzel populations on a mountain called Cadair Idris, that I was able to climb by taking a bus just an hour north.

While abroad in the UK, I focused heavily on traveling and managed to explore many parts of Wales, Scotland, and England. At first, I was unsure about choosing which term to complete my semester abroad, but studying in the fall was actually a great choice as the fall colors were very vibrant, and the cozy, yet moody weather autumn tends to bring was perfect to experience the quaint and historic villages found throughout the UK.

One thing I did a lot of while abroad was solo traveling. It was the first time I had been to a new country without my family or friends and was in turn responsible for every aspect of a journey — transportation, finding accommodation, food, and overall planning. However, I met so many people at hostels, restaurants, and even on mountains that I never felt truly alone. Going to the UK also made for a fairly easy transition culturally as most people speak English, and are similar to Americans. The UK also had quite the array of landscapes to explore. Even cities, such as Scotland’s capital: Edinburgh, has a hill to climb in its center. National parks there are stunning, and Wales is home to Snowdonia National Park, which covers about a third of the entire country. My favorite sites though have to be given to Scotland. I was able to visit there a couple of times, and made it to the Isle of Skye which is home to the Cuillin Range, and the Quiraing–both showstopping mountain ranges. Also, the amount of sheep I saw was absolutely brilliant, and they triple the population of humans in Wales alone.

Throughout my time abroad, I grew as an individual because I became more self-reliant and sensible. I was capable of doing so much more than I thought, even without a car, and I became more familiar with other cultures by meeting people from all around the world. I had roommates from France, Germany, and Spain, and a girl on the field hockey team I practiced with was from South Africa. It was always fascinating to hear about everyone’s upbringing, and it is heartwarming to know I have connections throughout other parts of the world I would have not established without this experience. If I could do it again, I would, but I would definitely try and study for an entire year. I felt welcome most everywhere I went, and while there were some steep learning curves to find my bearings at the start, pushing myself out of my comfort zone ultimately paid off and I made memories that will last forever.

My name is Luca Welle, and I spent a semester in Costa Rica studying sustainable development with the International Center for Development Studies. The program mainly consisted of taking classes four days a week in the capital city of San José at the Universidad Latina de Costa Rica. One of our classes was focused on community engagement, and was coupled with service at a community organization. Two mornings per week, I and two other students worked at Parque Ecologico Itarar planting, clearing brush, crafting mosaics, and more. On some afternoons and weekends, ICDS would plan activities from learning about cacao production to staying overnight at a voluntourism/organic coffee farm in the mountains. On many weekends, other students and I would plan trips to places like the cloud forests of Monteverde to zipline or one of the numerous beaches to snorkel and see bioluminescent algae. We also went to the museums downtown to learn more about Costa Rica’s culture and past. Despite these and other amazing experiences that I had while abroad, I did not enjoy living in a city as large as San José. There was far more concrete and steel than greenspace, and without a car getting out of the city could be logistically challenging and expensive. I oftentimes missed the familiarity I had with my home in Montana, where I am extremely grateful for the access to the outdoors that we have. When all is said and done, my Beyond the Classroom experience was worthwhile; I learned a lot about sustainability, community, the world we are apart of, and most importantly–myself.

Hello everyone! My name is Carson Cronk and I am majoring in Management Information Systems with a certificate in Global Leadership. Through my global theme of technology and society, I want to help people around the world adapt to a world of advanced technology and innovation. Through my Beyond the Classroom Experience, I was able to expand my horizon through an internship with a technology company.

This summer, I had the incredible opportunity to work at ATG, a tech company founded in Missoula. Summer in Montana is my favorite time of the year. For this reason, I couldn’t resist the urge to stay in Missoula and gain experiences that will help me kickstart my career. ATG (which is owned by Cognizant) was an incredible fit because they are a technology consulting company that has an expansive array of clients and services across the world, yet they have deep roots in the local community. These are both values that I share, and I was thrilled to spend twelve weeks of my summer learning more about ATG, the technology industry, and the art of consulting.

Over the course of the summer, six other interns and myself worked through multiple tech advisory projects and expanded our networks through mentoring from the leading minds at the company. I was also able to work with a local non-profit in a systems integration project. As the project manager, I lead our team through each stage of the project and made sure we delivered a solution that advanced their mission. All of these experiences were an incredible privilege and I learned so much about being a leader. I gained invaluable experience in business consulting and the future of technology, two skills that directly align with my personal aspirations and my global theme. I am so grateful for this opportunity and can’t wait to see what the future holds!

Hello! My name is Samantha Boutte and for my Beyond the Classroom experience I went to Valencia Spain. While there I had an internship at an immigration nonprofit that fit in with my theme of inequality and justice as well as my major as a social worker. I gained so much experience but also got to view the nonprofit immigration sector from another perspective that I think will be valuable to share with organizations here in the US.

I was also able to explore places around Valencia. These excursions included seeing castles, beaches, small towns, museums, and so much more. During these excursions I met so many new people and learned so much from them and their home country. I was also able to visit Portugal while abroad! Overall this experience has greatly impacted me. I got to experience a new culture, new food, new people and saw how their culture affected their politics in regards to immigration and their approach to it.

Given my theme of culture and politics, as well as my major Political Science and my major’s concentration of international relations, I wanted to take advantage of the opportunity GLI offered me by visiting a different country on the other side of the world. For me this was Spain as I had been studying Spanish independently for the previous 2 years, and wanted to visit a European nation the same year that it would be having elections shortly before its government would (temporarily by rotation) begin its tenure as the leading nation in the European Union. 

However, despite my goals of making connections and learning a new language on this exchange I believe the biggest thing I learned about during this semester was myself. Maybe it was just part of growing up, but it’s true when I say that the biggest effects I felt were indirect. Living in another culture is not without its valid apprehensions- finances, grades, phrases, imposter syndrome, and there were times I wished I was back home instead of abroad. It isn’t for the faint-hearted as there are always times you feel like you put in all this work for nothing. Of course there will be things you will wish you could do over and over again. But in retrospect it’s also true I couldn’t have learned everything I had nor made the friends I did, if it wasn’t for those negative parts. As a result, I have a fresh perspective on life that gave me more confidence, not necessarily to become a leader, but an informed citizen who doesn’t give in. Your story belongs to you, that comes with accepting the good with the bad, but regardless of how it turns out you must remember that you’re capable of resilience.

This past spring, I had the privilege of studying abroad for an entire semester in Buenos Aires, Argentina, at the Universidad del Salvador, taking a total of 20 credits for the semester. My Franke GLI global theme was inequality and human rights, which was a very central part of my experience abroad. Though Argentina is a beautiful country with a rich culture, it is also a country that as of recent is riddled by poverty and injustice. During my exchange semester, I bolstered my Spanish in a really meaningful way, ate some really incredible food, and met some amazing people, but at the center of it all, I gained a much better perspective on the implications of global inequality through the physical manifestations of that inequality that I saw firsthand.

The fact of the matter is that currently, Argentina is going through significant economic hardship. In the six months I was there, inflation went up just under 100%. A month after my departure, it was up around 150%. While it was nice for me being able to eat out at one of the many incredible restaurants in the downtown area of Buenos Aires for around $3-5 USD, and being able to literally change the course of someone’s day better by offering them a couple bucks, it was really difficult to see the intense poverty the vast majority of the country was, and still is confronted with. Though the cycle of living paycheck to paycheck is something that is very common in the United States, it seemed that even more of the people of Argentina were living in that vicious cycle, and that those at the bottom economically were much deeper in poverty than those in the same position in America. 

Argentina is also in a very tricky position politically, with a Trump-style right-wing strongman, Javier Milei, recently taking the highest percentage of the vote in the country’s recent presidential primary elections. The presidential candidate has gone on record as wanting to cut essentially all social services, from public healthcare to public education, and is an unabashed denier of the genocide committed by a right-wing dictatorship some years earlier in the country’s history. Several friends of mine have expressed that they are genuinely considering fleeing the country should he actually win the presidency. In my time abroad, however, it became clear to me that Milei’s recent primary victory is in part the result of decades of American interference. According to the New York Times (https://archive.nytimes.com/lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/01/24/exposing-the-legacy-of-operation-condor/), the previously mentioned dictatorship that executed as many as 30,000 Argentinians was a direct result of the infamous Operation Condor, a United States-backed campaign of political repression and state terrorism that involved CIA-backed coups and the assassination of prominent leftist leaders all throughout South and Central America. However, despite my country being one of the driving factors behind one of the greatest traumas within Argentinian history, all of the people I met were exceedingly magnanimous with me, because I understood the historical relationship between my country and theirs. I think this was a relief for many people who have suffered such a deep cultural trauma, and are accustomed to Americans who don’t know or conveniently overlook that history, like during our required course, Successful Education Abroad (EDU 212), where we discussed the possibility of people attacking us for being American without ever examining what those attacks might be rooted in.

Despite my qualms, and the difficulty of seeing so much suffering, much of which is the direct responsibility of my own country’s actions, I am extremely grateful for the experience that I had in Buenos Aires. I am grateful for the perspective I gained not only on inequality and human rights, but also culture. In the United States, in my humble opinion, we lack any sort of culture or cultural practice that isn’t somehow rooted in domination, or simply the appropriation of other cultures. Hamburgers are from Hamburg, Germany, Thanksgiving is simultaneously a widely celebrated American holiday and a day of mourning for many indigenous peoples, and the Fourth of July is the celebration of a country that exists entirely on stolen indigenous land. So, keeping that in mind, it was a huge relief for me to live in a country with an actual coherent culture that drew people together. I enjoyed getting to try and help prepare milanesa, dulce de leche, choripan, and several other traditional Argentinian foods, including enjoying a traditional Argentinian asado on their respective independence day, and eating gnocchis every 29th of the month. Furthermore, it was really something special to be able to show up to any bus stop knowing that if I didn’t have funds on my card, someone would pay for me without hesitation, and then refuse when I offered to pay them back in cash. It felt like a different world knowing that if I wanted, I could talk to a random stranger on the street, and the odds are they would actually stop and chat with me, and I might even make a friend out of it. I ended up sleeping in the house of a friend I had made that way the night I lost my apartment keys, and I wouldn’t have had it any other way. 

Seeing that culture of care for people that you barely know, even despite the right-wing uptick and intense political division in the country is something that I am still mourning losing, but also something that I hope to bring back. Everyday I work to be a more caring and kind person, even to those that I do not know. I work with Missoula Community Free Fridges to feed the most vulnerable in our city, I try and really listen to everyone I talk to, and I do everything I can to live my life in a way that is aligned with not only kindness, but also a better world for those who struggle every day, like many of the friends I made in Argentina. There are many things that I brought out of my study abroad experience, but a passion for equality, and kindness, even towards strangers are some of the biggest things I took away from my six months in the incomparable city of Buenos Aires.