Abroad101: Study Abroad Reviews

An Excellent Growing Experience in a Wonderfully Diverse City Past Review

By (Social Work., Northwestern College) - abroad from 01/02/2014 to 05/01/2014 with

Northwestern College: Denver - Denver Urban Semester

What did you gain/learn from your experience abroad? Was it worthwhile?
I learned what it is like to work in the social work field and also work with the homeless community. I am appreciative of all I learned at my practicum site and highly recommend the Denver Rescue Mission to future social work students. My experience of living in Denver was wonderful and I learned a lot just by riding the bus every day to work and walking around downtown. My time in Denver was definitely worthwhile.

Personal Information

How much international exposure did you have prior to this program? 0-2 weeks

Review Your Program

* Overall educational experience

Academic rigor, intensity, resources, etc.

The Denver Urban Semester was an excellent opportunity for me to step outside of my comfort zone to grow and stretch in many different ways. I am grateful to the directors in Denver for all of the hard work and time they put into making it a great semester experience. Over the course of the semester, I felt challenged academically, spiritually and culturally. The Denver directors worked to have teachers come for our Wednesday class who brought different learning perspectives with them.

* Host Country Program Administration

On-site administration of your program

The on-site administration in Denver were wonderful with their desire to help us grow and learn. Communication between administration and students could be majorly improved for the upcoming semesters.

* Housing:

How satisfied were you with your living arrangements?

I felt the house provided to us for the semester was great and allowed us to live in community with each other. Living in community like this gave us the chance to get to know one another better and become good friends at the end of the semester.

* Food:

It was great to have Greg, the director, go grocery shopping for us each week. This took a burden off of us students and allowed us to be able to cook for ourselves.

* Social & Cultural Integration:

How integrated did you feel with the local culture?

The Denver administration worked really hard to integrate us with the culture of the Denver community and city. Every day we were able to learn something new about the diversity within the city.

* Health Care:

How well were health issues addressed during the program?

* Safety:

Overall, I felt Denver as a city was pretty safe. Even riding the public bus system every day posed no safety issues. For future students, my advice for bus safety is to not be nervous and ride the bus like any other Denver citizen would do.

If you could do it all over again would you choose the same program? Yes

Finances

* Money: How easily were you able to live on a student's budget?

(1 = not very easy/$200+ on food & personal expenses/week, 2.5 = $100/week, 5 = very easily/minimal cost)

Living in Denver on a student's budget was doable but it was hard to spend money on experiencing different restaurants and sites and not have any income coming in during the semester.

Not including program expenses, about how much money did you spend on food and other expenses each week? $15-20

Language

* Did your program have a foreign language component? No

Other Program Information

* Where did you live?

Select all that apply

  • Other
* Who did you live with?

Select all that apply

  • Americans
  • Other
* Who did you take classes with?

Select all that apply

  • Americans
  • Other
About how many local friends did you make that you will likely keep in touch with?

A Look Back

* What did you like most about the program?
  • I liked how we were taught to integrate the Denver culture and diversity into our learning each week.
  • I liked having class each Wednesday to learn about different parts of the Denver community and the populations that make it up.
  • I liked how invested the directors of the Denver Urban Semester were in our learning and growing while we were living, working and learning in Denver.
* What could be improved?
  • The biggest thing that can be improved to the program is better communication between the Denver directors and the students.
* What do you know now that you wish you knew before going on this program? I wish I would of known how much of figuring things out on our own we would of had to do.

Reasons For Studying Abroad

To help future students find programs attended by like-minded individuals, please choose the profile that most closely represents you.
The Academic or Linguist
You went abroad with specific academic goals in mind; the program credentials and rigor of your coursework abroad were very important to you. You had a great time abroad, but never lost sight of your studies and (if applicable) were diligent with your foreign language study. Good for you!