Course description:

Engage in an online seminar with UCI students studying abroad all over the world! Participating in this seminar will allow you to share and compare the experiences you are having abroad with others. Brief writing assignments will help you translate what you are experiencing abroad into concrete academic and career skills that will last a lifetime. This 1.0 unit P/NP seminar is exclusively for UCI study abroad participants during Fall 2022. UPDATE: This course has been cancelled for Fall 2022.

Course Instructor

Anke Biendarra, Associate Professor of German and European Studies, is on a mission to convince as many students as possible to study abroad because she firmly believes that it is one the most valuable opportunities a college education can offer.  Living and working abroad helps us grow as people, builds a cultural literacy and allows a more global understanding of contemporary issues and our own place in the world.  Professor Biendarra has long been involved with study abroad in different capacities on and off the campus. From 2015-18, she served as Faculty Director Northern Europe in Berlin, from where she worked closely with undergraduates from all ten UC campuses studying abroad in Germany, Denmark, and Sweden, helping them navigate academic and personal issues.  Having grown up in Germany, she worked abroad in France and got an M.A. before moving to the United States for further graduate studies.

Professor Biendarra, pictured left, enjoys lunch with UC students studying abroad in Germany after one of their cultural excisions during the 2017 spring semester.

Past students say:

• This course helped me slow down and look at this experience and appreciate it. Professionally, the reflections helped me better understand what it is that I have learned and what it is that I am taking from this experience.
• The professor asked specific questions that were unique enough that the class is worth taking.
• This class provided a sense of Anteater community even when we’re all on separate parts of the planet.

If you have any questions, contact the Study Abroad Center.