Submitted by Katharine Hamelin on the 2021 fall semester DIS program in Copenhagen, Denmark…
The DIS Copenhagen study abroad program is unique for many reasons. One reason that many students choose this program is because they offer many opportunities to go outside of the classroom and learn things within your field. Firstly, there are no scheduled lectures on Wednesdays because those are reserved for field studies. Field studies allow us to go with each of our classes to visit different places in Copenhagen and see the things we are learning in action. There are also 2 separate weeks that you spend with your core course outside of the classroom traveling and learning more about your field. The first week is the short study tour. This involves going with your core course outside of Copenhagen, but staying within Denmark.
The second week is the long study tour in which you leave Denmark with your core class, and go to a nearby country for the week. On both the short study tour and the long study tour, DIS tries to incorporate a mix of both cultural learning experiences and academic learning experiences.
Recently we had our short study tour week, and my core class went to 3 other cities in Denmark. The first city that my class went to is called Vejle. This city was just a cultural learning experience for my class, so we spent the day tree climbing. Honestly, I did not know what to expect when my teacher said we were going tree climbing, but it was basically just a ropes course and zip lining. It was really exciting and definitely pushed me outside of my comfort zone being so high up in the trees! The second city that my core course went to was Horsens. There we had a few academic visits with a wellness center and general practitioner, and a cultural visit to Horsens Prison Museum. There we got to see the old state’s penitentiary and learn about the prison life and escape stories on a guided tour. The last city we went to was Aarhus. Aarhus is the second largest city in Denmark, and there I also got to experience both academic and cultural visits. The cultural visit in Aarhus was probably my favorite part of the short study tour. We had free time to explore the city that night, and some classmates and I decided to go to ARoS Modern Art Museum. The museum had beautiful exhibits, but the highlight was definitely the rainbow panorama part at the top of the museum. By the time I was there the sun was setting and I got to see some amazing views in each color of the rainbow. Overall, I really enjoyed this opportunity to get outside of the classroom and explore more of Denmark, and I am looking forward to my long study tour trip where my class will head to Finland for a week.
