Three young girls slip into a train car that looks like something straight out of Harry Potter. The sign on the door is in German, which none of them speak, so they shrug and take a seat. The overnight train rattles across Europe. Next stop, Vienna.
Nine Hillsdale College students spent the summer studying and experiencing Spanish culture through the college’s study abroad program.
“I looked [the sign] up later and it said “bike compartment” so we spent the night in the bike compartment,” said Junior Caroline Green, one of the girls who took the train.
Green and Junior Chelsea Bratten took a break from their studies in Spain to visit Berlin, Vienna, and London.
“We planned the whole thing, paid for the whole thing, bought all the tickets and all the hostel rooms completely on our own, navigated each city on our own,” Green said. “Three 20 year old girls.”
Experiences like those are what draw students to study abroad. Junior Devyn Moore went cliff-diving off a 25-foot cliff.
“It was spring water from the mountains and it was really cold, like unbearable cold,” she said. “It was cool as you went down but once you hit the water you lost your breath and most of your senses so once you came up you had to learn how to breathe again.”
When not exploring the continent, students take classes with Spanish professors. The classes aren’t limited to Spanish, though. They can take other classes like Spanish for business, Spanish for healthcare, or history of art.
Since the program is affiliated with the college, the students earn direct credits instead of transfer credits, so the credits affect their GPA and are considered equal to a Hillsdale class.
Hillsdale students have studied in Seville, Alicante, and Córdoba. Study abroad in Spain adviser and Associate Professor of Spanish Kevin Teegarden sits in on the lectures and follows the classes closely to ensure their integrity. He and his wife also visit the students to check in on them.
Teegarden said the program has experienced varying degrees of interest but has grown over the years.
Students inevitably field an array of questions about American culture and government. According to Teegarden, Spaniards commonly think of Americans as overworked and lacking a strong commitment to the family.
“You are like ambassadors when you go abroad,” Teegarden said. “They have a certain image, a certain stereotype of what am are like based on American television and movies. Students become experts in conveying what am life is like and that leads to introspection as you start comparing your culture with another culture.”
