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At the ���Ĵ�ý, the world is your campus.

It’s one of the many great things about DU. Students can go abroad and earn credits for a summer, a quarter, or even longer through the University’s abundant study abroad opportunities. In fact, more than 70 percent of undergrads go abroad at some point during their time at DU.��

Pursuing education abroad is not only the opportunity of a lifetime, but it’s also been made increasingly accessible to all students thanks to the support of the initiative, which offsets many of the costs associated with studying abroad.

And with more than 150 programs to choose from in 50 different countries, every student’s study abroad experience can look a little different.

We talked to five undergraduates who have traveled the world with DU—here are their stories.

Luke Molé

University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand

What’s one study abroad experience that you feel changed your outlook on the world?

I did a lot of mountaineering when I was there, and because I went to New Zealand alone, I didn't know any of these people that I was doing these adventures with beforehand. I went on a backcountry backpacking trip with one local and one person from Scotland, and it was this huge hike. It took 12 hours one day, six hours the next. And when we finally got to the top, I was just sitting at the top of the peak, and I was like, “Wow. This is incredible. I am in the middle of nowhere, in a different country, no contact with the outside world.”

Rhianna Lewis

American College of Greece, Athens, Greece

What would you say is the biggest difference between Greece and the United States?

It’s just so old, and that ancient feeling is still so present. You can't escape the history, and they're very open about that. Not even just the history, but the political turmoil and the way that they feel about their government, and the way that they feel about societal norms and issues is very present, because that's like all they've ever known.��

You're sitting in Athens, the home of democracy—of course, if you're not happy with the way the government's being run, people are going to protest, people are going to riot. Like, yes, you can go to Santorini, you can go see the beautiful beaches. You can do the Acropolis tour and call it a day. But there’s also graffiti everywhere, and there's riot vans, and they're so involved in change, because they've been the hub of it for so long. And it was invigorating for me to be there in that way.

Abigail Hopper

Sciences Po, Rennes, France

Can you describe a challenge you faced while living abroad that you were able to overcome?

I really struggled with being one of only three Americans in my program. I felt super isolated, and I struggled with a lot of loneliness and kind of feeling on my own. And I had to work really hard at that, because I lived in my own apartment, and it was so easy to just go back and get on my little couch and watch TV and pretend I was back home.��

Most of my closest friends ended up being German and Italian. And I think having to push and make the effort to make friends—once I did that, I was able to have a great friend group. But overcoming that, where I felt like, “I don't know anyone and no one's from where I'm from,”�� was a super big challenge for me.

Avery Bryant

Prague University of Economics & Business, Prague, Czechia

What was the best part of your study abroad experience?

I met this guy, and we started skateboarding together. We just became friends, and he ended up taking me all over, and I got to go to his family’s cabin in the woods on the border of Poland for a weekend with him and his friends, and he took me to all these shows and showed me around, and I met all these Czech people.��

Watching that relationship slowly build—I felt so lucky to be able to do that, to go to his house for dinner and just be trusted and invited to go spend a whole weekend in this little cabin with him and his girlfriend. A lot of their friends, aside from him, didn't really speak a lot of English, and the fact that he felt comfortable bringing me along for all of that was really cool.

Travis Herinck

Maastricht University, Maastricht, Netherlands

Why did you decide to study abroad?

I'm in the international studies department, where it's a big thing to study abroad, because you're gaining new perspectives on global governance. Also, being a public policy major with a specialization in U.S. foreign policy, I wanted to go somewhere that was a big international studies hub, or international politics hub, like Maastricht. And I wanted to learn more about Europe and hopefully take a class on the Middle East as well. I got to learn about the governance of the Middle East, as well as Europe and the EU—very complicated yet interesting stuff. In my international relations themes and theories class, I learned more about the governance of other countries, whether that be liberal countries, realist countries, structuralist countries; and that was very eye-opening to me, and I came back from abroad with a more thoughtful approach to the international arena.