Raquel Kalpakoff (Italy, 2025-26)

Raquel Kalpakoff is an Environmental Systems major with a concentration in Environmental Policy at UC San Diego. She is spending a fifth year abroad at the University of Bologna in Italy—a long-held dream made even more meaningful by the fact that her mother studied there 35 years ago. Raquel is also a visual artist and the founder of Rocket Artistry, her pet portraiture business that supported her through college. This year marks her first opportunity to focus on personal creative exploration, particularly through courses at the Accademia di Belle Arti di Bologna. A former student-athlete on UCSD’s women’s soccer team, Raquel once thought study abroad was out of reach. Now in Italy, she is diving into art school, improving her Italian, joining a local soccer team, and exploring sustainable agriculture—the field in which she hopes to build her career after researching regenerative agriculture for her senior thesis. Raquel describes her time in Bologna as transformative: a period of artistic growth, self-reflection, and deepening connection to her Italian heritage.

Biraj Gurung (Germany, 2025-26)

Biraj Gurung is an Economics major at UC Berkeley who is spending the 2025–26 academic year at Freie Universität Berlin. Born in Hong Kong and raised in Nepal, Biraj immigrated to Los Angeles in 2013, carrying with him a resourcefulness forged through nightly blackouts and the determination to turn challenges into opportunity. In 2021, he enlisted in the U.S. Army and deployed to Kuwait, Qatar, and Jordan, where he led multinational teams and learned to navigate cultural nuance under pressure. At Berkeley, he is an active mentor in the Cal Veterans Group and the Language Exchange Program, where he honed the German skills he brought to Berlin. During his year abroad, Biraj plans to explore Germany’s social market economy and labor institutions, including codetermination and the crisis-era Kurzarbeit program. He will also intern with Arrival NGO, supporting refugee integration through workforce training and language education. Outside the classroom, Biraj is an avid hiker who connects his love of exploring national parks and cities with his passion for bridging cultures. After returning home, he hopes to pursue a career in recruiting in Los Angeles, helping connect global talent with opportunity, and to continue mentoring his younger brother as he navigates high school and college. 

Tara Littlehailes (England, 2025-26)

Tara Littlehailes, an Economics major at UC Berkeley, is spending the 2025–26 academic year at the London School of Economics (LSE). Originally from Southern California, Tara has been financially independent since she was sixteen. She earned her GED, enrolled in community college early, and transferred to Berkeley after three years, all while working full-time. Her academic interests center on the intersection of economics and social outcomes: how financial systems shape opportunity, how policy affects lived experience, and how fairness is constructed and contested. LSE offers her a chance to explore these questions from a global perspective. Tara loves writing, deep conversations, and rainy days. Though she lived briefly in London as a child, this is her first time living abroad on her own. She looks forward to a year that will push her, broaden her worldview, and shape the person she is becoming.

Shuoying Cao (Japan, 2025-26)

Shuoying Cao is pursuing a double major in Sociology and Visual Arts at UC San Diego. Raised between Shanghai and California, she is drawn to the ways culture, ideology, and social norms form the backbone of societies—and to the power of visual storytelling to reflect and critique them. For the 2025–26 academic year, Shuoying is studying at Keio University in Tokyo, where she is examining sociology from East Asian perspectives while continuing to build her artistic practice. As a first-generation college student, she is the first in her family to study abroad, and she looks forward to developing independence, discovering new creative outlets, and immersing herself in a region deeply connected to her heritage.

Rona Song (Japan, 2025-26)

Rona Song is an undergraduate at UC Irvine double majoring in Film and Media Studies and Criminology. Born and raised in Suzhou, China, she came to the United States for college, where her cross-cultural journey sparked a deep interest in how storytelling, media, and legal systems intersect across societies. Rona is spending the 2025–26 academic year at Keio University in Tokyo. She is excited to explore global media communication, intellectual property, and digital content creation—areas that merge her interests in culture, narrative, and law. Outside her academic work, Rona is passionate about dance, which she sees as a powerful vehicle for expression and emotional clarity. She hopes her time in Japan will help her grow both intellectually and personally as she charts a future in cultural communication or media policy.

Madison DeLuca (Japan, 2025-26)

Madison DeLuca is a transfer student at UC San Diego majoring in Interdisciplinary Computing and the Arts (ICAM) with a concentration in 3D modeling and virtual environments. She is spending the 2025–26 academic year at Waseda University in Tokyo. Inspired by the world-building of Japanese video games, Madison aims to become a 3D artist in Japan’s game industry. At Waseda’s School of International Liberal Studies, she intends to study Japanese design, architecture, film, and intensive language—work that will deepen both her artistic voice and her cultural fluency. Influenced by visual storytellers such as Daidō Moriyama and Shūji Terayama, Madison looks forward to joining Tokyo’s creative communities and connecting with other artists through both Japanese and the “universal language” of art. She hopes this year will expand her perspective, strengthen her craft, and help her grow as both an artist and a person.

Isabel Foust (The Netherlands, 2025-26)

Isabel Foust is a Business Economics major with a minor in Law and Society at UC San Diego. She is spending the 2025–26 academic year at Utrecht University in the Netherlands. Isabel’s love of travel began at nine, when she first visited Singapore and Malaysia, and deepened during later trips to Italy, Switzerland, and France. This current year marks her most ambitious global chapter yet: a year in the Netherlands, a family pilgrimage to the Philippines, and time in Japan before departing for Europe. Drawn to the opportunity to immerse herself in a culture entirely new to her, Isabel looks forward to learning languages, visiting museums, and building friendships across borders. Outside academics, she enjoys film, music, and fashion, and she is eager to explore the Netherlands’ rich artistic heritage while developing her independence and expanding her global perspective.

Alexander Hirsch (Sweden, 2025-26)

Alexander Hirsch is a Robotics Engineering major at UC Riverside spending a full academic year at Lund University in Sweden. Inspired early by stories of his father’s own study abroad experience, he has long viewed international immersion as a path to deeper personal and intellectual growth. At UCR, Alexander has thrown himself into hands-on engineering: contributing to a patent-pending roof-locking mechanism at HexHomes, refining the accumulator and drivetrain systems for Highlander Racing’s Formula SAE team, and collaborating with peers from around the world at the Taipei Tech International Robotics Competition. Drawn to Sweden’s global leadership in robotics and sustainability, Alexander chose Lund for its cutting-edge research environment and its culture of balance, community, and innovation. Since arriving in August, he has embraced Swedish life—from passing his language orientation course to joining Lund’s engineering “guild” and adopting the bright-colored overalls worn proudly by students in each technical discipline. He has also discovered the joy of fika, the Swedish tradition of pausing for coffee, cake, and conversation, and sees these daily rhythms as part of what makes the university community so welcoming. Academically, Alexander is energized by the rigor and pace of his courses, which emphasize immediate hands-on work. He is already designing and soldering his own boards for a lab project and is excited to dive deeper into robotics research over the coming months. Whether learning Swedish, navigating new academic expectations, or adapting to life in a northern climate, he sees every challenge as part of the growth he sought when he applied. Alexander hopes his time in Sweden will shape not only the kind of engineer he becomes, but the kind of global citizen he aspires to be—one committed to innovative, sustainable, and human-centered design.