Study abroad anniversary
IGS, Danish Institute for Study Abroad celebrate 30 years of partnership
8:44 a.m., June 4, 2015--Thirty years ago, the University of Delaware’s Institute for Global Studies (IGS) began a partnership with the Danish Institute for Study Abroad (DIS) that would lead to the University’s oldest continuous study abroad program.
Over the course of that time, one constant has remained. Peter Rees, professor emeritus of geography, has worked with each of the 100 UD students who have participated in the program since its inception in 1985.
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Malene Torp, executive director of DIS, recently visited UD to honor the lasting relationship between UD and DIS, and the dedicated oversight of Rees.
At a morning reception hosted by IGS, she announced the establishment of a DIS scholarship in Rees’ honor.
The scholarship will be awarded to select UD students who travel to Copenhagen, and will be applied toward their program fee.
In her comments, Torp thanked Rees for his continued advocacy and support, and attributed the success of the UD-DIS partnership to “on-campus champions” like Rees, who “really understand the program and can articulate why it makes sense.”
While most study abroad programs are driven by destination, DIS has a different story. Although its home in Copenhagen, a city both historic and modern, offers American students a vibrant European location in which to live and learn, the real draw for DIS is its range of academic offerings – over 200 courses within 23 fields of study each semester.
“This is a more diverse program than any other semester program we offer,” said Rees. “There is no other program that ranges from the sciences to the humanities and the social sciences.”
The Copenhagen program is also unique in that it maintains a hands-on learning approach as a core value. A vast majority of the faculty at DIS are individuals who have had years of experience in their field of study before teaching in the classroom.
In addition, DIS takes each of its students on study tours where they have the opportunity to explore parts of Europe otherwise unreachable to the average traveler.
Annette Brocks, who studied abroad in Copenhagen this spring, wrote, “Europe is truly your classroom! I have climbed to the top of a windmill, learned to compost, and walked around a city in Sweden to see architecture in action… I hiked over ancient burial grounds in Aarhus and snow-shoed in Norway.”
These characteristics, among others, have made Copenhagen a popular destination for UD students over the last 30 years.
For Bill Cook, who studied abroad through DIS in 1990, Copenhagen was his first introduction to living in a city. “I was a shy and naïve country boy,” he said. “This was a kind of big deal.”
Cook eagerly chose DIS’s host family living option as a way to completely immerse himself in the experience.
Twenty-five years later, Cook attributes his “desire for career change and decision to go to graduate school at the edge of [his] 40s” to this very first experience abroad. He returned to school to pursue a degree in urban and regional planning.
“In recent years,” he said, “Copenhagen has been considered a model and innovator in policies and practice related to urban design, transportation, architecture and related fields.”
In the future, DIS hopes to continue to build on its model for study abroad. “That’s the beauty of being 56 years old,” commented Torp. “We know who we are and what the core values of our program are. The hands-on idea of working with Europe as your classroom will always stay the same. For us, it is about new majors.”
Growing from 10 to 23 majors over the past 10 years, DIS now takes on the fields of computer science and sustainability in an effort to align with current issues and to make study abroad accessible to students who have not traditionally been represented.
Rees and Lisa Chieffo, associate director for study abroad at IGS, foresee the program only strengthening in the years to come.
“Frankly, everyone who comes back says that this is a life changing experience,” said Rees. IGS hopes to be able to enroll even more students in the program during the coming year.
For more information on the UD-DIS Copenhagen program, visit the program website or contact Chieffo at lchieffo@udel.edu.
Interested students are encouraged to apply for the spring 2016 program by Sept. 10.
Article by Nikki Laws
Conservation class photo by Lisa Chieffo