Venture outside Europe for study abroad
By Anna Bongardino, Contributing Editor
February 27, 2019
Young self-designated travelers who have just returned after a few months abroad often say things along the lines of “Study abroad changed me. It was amazing!” Many of us tend to roll our eyes in response. While two, four or even six months in a country may seem like a short time, the things...
Blog: Reverse culture shock after China study abroad
By Ben Spock, Staff Writer
February 13, 2019
This page was made possible in part by a grant from Year of Pitt Global. I won’t soon forget my experience standing in line at the McDonald’s in the Chicago O’Hare Airport. I had a layover in Chicago during my trip between Shanghai and Pittsburgh after studying abroad in China for two months. I was about to or...
Blog: Further reflections on adoption, Chinese study abroad
By Kim Rooney, Contributing Editor
February 8, 2019
When I become too embroiled in writer’s block, I often remind myself that, so long as I stay alive to do so, I can update pieces I write. I studied abroad in Shanghai in the summer of 2017, during which time I returned to my hometown Gaoyou. When I came back to the United States, I wrote a column reflec...
Blog: Shanghai from sunrise to sunset
By Levko Karmazyn, Staff Writer
February 1, 2019
Shanghai gave me a new appreciation for chaos. Between the insane driving, commerce and sheer number of inhabitants — 24 million or so — it seemed as if there was no way I could ever make sense of it all. But the more my focus narrowed, whether on an individual life, a single small shop or even o...
Berlin internship proves stereotypes wrong
By Maggie Koontz, Senior Staff Writer
January 30, 2019
This page was made possible in part by a grant from Year of Pitt Global. On the very first day of my writing internship at tbd*, a social business startup in Berlin that connects people with employment resources, I stepped through the door and I was immediately greeted by my bosses and ...
‘Pitt in London’: Fan-filled adventure
By Victoria Pfefferle-Gillot, Staff Writer
January 16, 2019
I have harbored a deep love and appreciation for the U.K. since I was a child. I developed a passion for Arthurian myths and legends, and British film, television and book series like Peter Pan, Sherlock Holmes, Harry Potter and The Chronicles of Narnia. Besides my love for the U.K. and the many ca...
Exploring the Boot with Grace: Studying while abroad
By Grace McGinness, Columnist
November 9, 2018
Some students become so excited over their study abroad experience and all the extra bonuses that come with it like new food, new experiences and new friends that they forget their main obligation — studying.
First days in Florence
By Grace McGinness, Staff Columnist
September 12, 2018
I decided to study abroad when the Italian culture charmed me during mandatory language classes in high school. A land with more than 1,000 years of history and each corner with its own distinct culture, I wanted more than anything to live and learn in Italy.
Host families enrich the study abroad experience
By Anna Bongardino, Contributing Editor
August 20, 2018
The most valuable experiences I had in Morocco were those that couldn’t have been more different from life in the United States — and that I would not have experienced had I stayed with other American students instead of my host family.
Students wrestle with returning home
By Nina Kneuer | Staff Writer
October 23, 2017
Aarthi Pookot remembered her first moment of “reverse” culture shock when she returned home from spending a year abroad in Japan. Pookot — a first-year Japanese major — was at an airport in Atlanta, Georgia, and was trying to buy a hot chocolate while waiting for her connecting flight home. ...
Scared to study abroad? Do it anyway
By Sarah Shearer | For The Pitt News
September 13, 2017
I was in the candy aisle of a bookstall April 19 when I first heard the emergency alarms and looked up to see the main concourse of London Euston Train Station in a dark frenzy. I grabbed my bag, shuffled out the nearest exit and stood outside with other travelers for almost half an hour before someone announced ov...
Identity politics: finding my heritage in a hometown I never knew
By Kim Rooney | Contributing Editor
August 28, 2017
When talking about adoption, people approach me with a delicate curiosity, like when enquiring about the sick or the dying. Apologies, whether for the assumption that my parents are my birth parents or for the adoption itself, are common. People don’t quite know what to say to me. They ask more...
To realize your passion, go into the field
By Levko Karmazyn | For The Pitt News
August 21, 2017
As I watched the sun fall behind the mountain peaks surrounding the K BAR Z Guest Ranch in early July, the valley below was an uncharacteristic shade of blue, unlike the past few nights. Something else felt different, too — it was the last night of Pitt’s Yellowstone Field Study. I already knew I ...
Tales from Morocco: School Days
By Elaina Zachos / staff writer
April 20, 2016
“Tales from Morocco” is a reoccurring column on reporter Elaina Zachos’ semester studying culture, tradition and daily life in the North African nation. How did I spend my spring break? In class. Late last month, we took a break from our urban lives in Rabat, Morocco, and traded them in for a few d...
Tales from Morocco: navigating the desert
By Elaina Zachos / Staff Writer
March 21, 2016
“Tales from Morocco” is a reoccurring column on reporter Elaina Zachos’ semester studying culture, tradition and daily life in the North African nation. These days, I don’t ride the 71C — I ride camels. Last month, my study abroad program took journalism students from seaside Rabat, Morocc...
Tales from Morocco: TPN abroad
By Elaina Zachos / Staff Writer
March 2, 2016
In the pre-colonial pocket of modern Rabat, the walls of the Moroccan city’s Old Medina weave between slippery stone streets. Doors of varying heights, colors and sizes decorate these corridors, concealing homes within. The pathways corral the mangy, scrappy cats rummaging through trash and roami...
Smoke across the water: Pitt study abroad students adjust to weed culture shock
By Jack Trainor / Staff Writer
April 20, 2015
When Kative Crivellaro smoked a joint last summer in Amsterdam, she was nervous. Not because marijuana is illegal in the United States, but because she “was desperately trying not to come off as an American tourist.”Before they go abroad, Pitt’s Study Abroad Office warns its travelers about th...