“Take advantage of the many unique opportunities DIS offers to get you out of your comfort zone!”
Program: Danish Institute for Study Abroad (DIS), Spring
Student’s Majors: Community and Nonprofit Leadership, Art History
Academic Life: Each student takes a core course that focuses on a specific academic field throughout the semester. This course is sometimes related to their home university major. Each core course goes on two study tours, one for 3 days in another Danish, Swedish, or German City, and one for 6 days to another country. With my core course, Modern European Art and Cinema, I traveled to Aarhus, Denmark, Prague, Czech Republic, and Vienna, Austria. The study tours allowed me to experience the things we discussed in class in person!
Housing: I lived in the Performing Art Living/Learning Community. I had 10 roommates and a Danish Residential Advisor living in my apartment and we shared a house with the Visual Arts Learning Community, who lived in the other two apartments. As a part of the Performing Arts Living/Learning Community, I attended events once a week with my LLC, attended an LLC retreat weekend, and created a showcase at the end of the semester. Our LLC Coordinator was a Danish student a little older than us, which was a great way to get to know more Danes!
Advice for Someone Considering DIS: DIS is a very comprehensive program. They organize a lot of things for you that make studying abroad simple such as helping with residence permits, metro cards, grocery stipends, and arranging housing and study tours with your core class. If you are looking for a program that thinks of everything, DIS is it! That being said, DIS also pushes you to be independent and create your own experience, which I think is important to keep in mind for anyone going abroad.