A few weeks after I’d decided to spend my fall semester studying abroad, I realized that would mean I’d be voting absentee in my first general election. At that point, I didn’t know just how consequential this election would become.
When I was first looking into colleges, I ignored anything having to do with studying abroad. I knew I wasn’t interested – not because I didn’t think it would be valuable, but because I thought, I’m spending so much time and energy figuring out where I should live and study for four years of my life – why spend an eighth of my time in college not even there?
I've since changed my mind.
Off-campus study programs are a wonderful way to get out of Gambier and gain more worldly and scholarly experience at different institutions. But OCS is not for everyone.
Around half of Kenyon students will study off campus at some point, and with just a few days left in Russia, I think now is a great time to talk about why I went abroad.
On Nov. 13, 2015, tragedy struck Paris. In a series of terrorist attacks orchestrated by ISIS, 130 lives were lost in one night. In a short period of time, I have felt a vast difference in my time abroad.