Debbie Leung, a third year student majoring in Urban Studies and Planning with minors in Environmental Studies and Economics, studied at the Danish Institute for Study Abroad in Copenhagen for a semester. Debbie has a special interest in sustainability and tries to be eco-friendly by taking public transit, not eating meat, and carrying around a reusable water bottle whenever possible. She has been involved in promoting energy efficiency and waste reduction with the UCSD Student Sustainability Collective. She targeted Copenhagen because of its modest size, bicycle-friendly streets and green technologies. After one semester in Copenhagen she has decided to return to UCSD because in Copenhagen she was not able to get the credits she needs to graduate on time. She writes that, “Copenhagen has been an invaluable resource for seeing and experiencing urban livability. I really would love to stay in Copenhagen the rest of the year to continue learning Danish and to really get comfortable with the city, but after thoroughly considering all my options for staying, the academic outlook for returning to UCSD was better.”
Molly Tremblay (Ireland, 2011-12)
Molly Tremblay is a Structural Engineering major with a minor in Literatures in English studying at University College Dublin. It is Molly’s goal to study architecture after graduating from UCSD and eventually design innovative, sustainable buildings. Outside of work and classes at UCSD, Molly remains active with her high school Robotics team as a mentor. Her experiences with the robotics team inspired her to become an engineer and one of her goals for her year abroad is to create the first high school robotics team in Ireland by sharing her passion and knowledge. During her first term, Molly’s engineering project group was chosen to participate in an Innovation Ireland exhibition and she reported that they were able to “awe the engineers with our prototype laptop design.” During the term, she also authored a paper about Samuel Beckett and traveled to London. Prior to her departure Molly wrote, “It is with great eagerness that I prepare for my time in Ireland,” adding that she hopes “to leave the Emerald Isle as a more aware global citizen and well-travelled student, ever eager to share my experiences and encourage others to partake in their own adventures.”
Katerina Siefkas (France, 2011-12)
Katerina Siefkas, an International Studies- Political Science / Linguistics major, is studying at the University of Lyon in France. She learned about the Chris Borton Memorial Scholarship before she came to UCSD. While still in high school, she visited UC Davis Picnic Day where she met Verena who encouraged her to consider studying abroad and to apply for the scholarship if she chose UCSD. Katerina grew up in Novato, California and developed a love of languages at an early age. She started with French at the age of seven and has added Spanish and Mandarin Chinese since then. In her statement of purpose, Katerina wrote that fluency means much more to her than simply the ability to communicate with ease. During her year in Lyon, she hopes to achieve “an understanding of the applications of the language, of how they define and represent culture, as the quirks of a language are so integral to the culture’s shape and form.” She is living with two French roommates in an apartment in the center of Lyon, overlooking the Place Bellecour, and can walk to her classes. Outside of classes, she has already traveled to Wales, Oxford and London during her first half year abroad.