Wildcats Abroad
By Benjamin Zack and Jaime Winston BA ’22, Marketing & Communications
Studying abroad leads to intercultural experiences, forever friendships and unique insights into subject areas that come only from first-hand experience.
Addie Harmon BFA ’23 thought she wouldn’t be able to experience that due to the cost, until she received a scholarship to study art in Venice for three weeks in 2022.
“It was 14 students and two professors, and we all lived in this little apartment we rented out,” she said. “We would go to see art basically every day.”
At the La Biennale di Venezia, a festival featuring artists from around the world, she found inspiration in video pieces by Eglé Budvytyté and paintings by Ficre Ghebreyeusus. The trip made her realize she could go anywhere.
“The world, traveling, visiting other countries, experiencing different cultures — these all became accessible, in reality as well as in my mind,” she said.
This past summer, 91¶ÌÊÓƵ photographer Benjamin Zack accompanied students and faculty on their life-changing journeys to Italy, Finland and Switzerland. Like Harmon, the students featured here have become part of a much larger global community.
Italy, Department of Visual Arts, May 6–21, 2024
A 91¶ÌÊÓƵ student explores a contemporary art exhibition at Palazzo Grassi in Venice, Italy. Throughout the trip, students visited sites and exhibits featuring both contemporary and classical art.
Gondolas line a canal in Venice, Italy.
Students sketch the sculptures and ceiling fresco in Chiesa di San Pantaleone Martire, a 17th-century parish church in Venice, Italy. Visual arts professor Matthew Choberka leads the Contemporary Art study abroad program in Venice every other summer. The trip is designed to overlap with the La Biennale di Venezia, an international contemporary arts festival.
A student admires the frescoes of the Scrovegni Chapel in Padua, Italy. The chapel was recently declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site due to the influential 14th-century frescoes by Giotto.
Finland and Estonia, College of Education, May 6–17, 2024
Students and faculty from the Moyes College of Education hike through Nuuksio National Park in Finland. During their time in rural Finland, students visited local schools and nature centers to learn about incorporating nature into the classroom.
Students feed lichen to reindeer at the Nuuksio Reindeer Park in Finland.
Church steeples are reflected in a student’s glasses during a walking tour of Tallinn, Estonia. While in Estonia, students learned about how Soviet occupation and the region’s battle for independence still impact the country today.
Students plunge into Lake Siikajärvi after warming up in the nearby sauna. The Nordic Education study abroad trip is structured around visits to schools in Finland, Estonia and Sweden. In addition to the time spent in the classroom, students learn about local history, food and culture, including Finland’s sauna culture.
The northern lights shine over Lake Siikajärvi near Nuuksio National Park in Finland.
Switzerland, Master of Health Administration, May 5–11, 2024
Students and faculty from the Master of Health Administration program watch the countryside roll by as they take a train through the valleys above the Saane River in the Swiss mountains.
Église Saint-Théodule de Gruyères stands on the edge of the mountain town of Gruyères in Western Switzerland.
Weber State students share gelato during a day off in the historic Swiss mountain town of Gruyères. The Healthcare in Geneva study abroad program focused on meetings with international organizations based in Geneva, including the World Health Organization, the United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross. Near the end of the trip, students and faculty took a day off to explore the Swiss countryside.
A dock stretches from the medieval Chillon Castle into Lake Geneva near Montreux, Switzerland.
Students and faculty hike to Gruyéres Castle after visiting the nearby cheese factory.
Switzerland, Department of Social Work, May 1–14, 2024
Students with the Studies in Harm Reduction study abroad program meet with the Bern Cantonal Police to discuss Switzerland’s evolving drug policies. Following a devastating heroin epidemic in the 1970s and ’80s, Switzerland shifted to a focus on “harm reduction.” This policy seeks to mitigate the harms that can arise from drug use instead of focusing on total abolition.
Students take in the view from the walkways near the top of the gothic Lausanne Cathedral in Lausanne, Switzerland.
Flags line the streets of Bern. Students from the Department of Social Work spent two weeks based in Bern and traveled nearly every day to meet with social workers, police, medical professionals and non-profit organizations in cities throughout Switzerland.
Social workers give Weber State students a tour of a consumption facility in Bern. At sites around the country, residents are allowed to consume certain drugs in a supervised setting.
Sunlight shines through the stained glass windows of the 12th-century Lausanne Cathedral in Lausanne, Switzerland.