Nothing helps end a busy semester like some time abroad. Sometimes after a particularly hectic school year it’s just about the only way to stop thinking about school. Spring was the busiest semester of my life, and my study abroad faculty-led trip to Ireland was the light at the end of the tunnel.

I’m coming to you now from a small town in County Kerry called Listowel, where a group of 18 WSU students and our professor have conquered a local bed and breakfast. This is our third stop in the last week and a half, with five days in Derry and three days in Dublin.

This program is part of a faculty led trip, covering one three credit class – either Honors 370 or NATRS 312. We are studying Irish culture, history, and environment by immersing ourselves in all these things.

Its one thing to read about the Troubles in Northern Ireland, and another to walk through the streets of Derry with a former member of the IRA as he recounts his own memories from Bloody Sunday, which he witnessed. 

Our professor, Matthew Carroll, has worked with an incredible Irishman named Tony to guide us through the trip. We stayed first at a home Tony owns on Inch Island in Derry, and he has organized speakers and events for us to have a comprehensive program and learn an unbelievable amount.

The learning has been coupled with cultural experiences, like Irish music, theater, song and dance. And yes, a few visits to pubs. We have been as immersive as a group of 19 can be, from classes in the Irish language to pubs to Irish dancing lessons to playing the Irish version of Cards Against Humanity in the evenings, featuring cards such as “the bloody Welsh.”

We’ve done tourist things as well, but everything we do connects with the course material. For instance, we saw the Giant’s Causeway, which is an incredibly beautiful natural rock formation and a World Heritage Site, yet has amazing amounts of mythology attached to it. We’ve stopped at castles and talked about the influence the owners of the castles had on history,culture, and environment.

I will be in Europe for another three and a half weeks, and I have arrived at the conclusion that spending time abroad is an incredibly valuable part of any education, so much so that it really should be part of the standard curriculum.  It shouldn’t have to break the bank. Universities should make a point to encourage this practice by making it as accessible as possible.

I have a faculty-led program, which I love because we have the benefit of an on-site professor who worked with us prior to the trip and who can work with us after it. There are, however, many other program types.

I encourage everyone to go to International Programs and meet with a Global Learning Adviser, just to think about it. It is already an eye opening experience – and I’m only a week in.

Wish you were here.