DelVal Students Travel Abroad During Spring Break
Four DelVal students of various majors traveled to Denmark to see the cities of Copenhagen, Randers, Aarhus, and Aalborg. Lysette Eloi ’23, Heaven Sulflow ’25, Caitlin Rivera ’25, and Benjamin Ghilon ’25, stayed with host families during their 10-day stay. The students were accompanied by Craig Stutman, associate professor of history. The trip is part of a business department program in which Tradium College Students visit DelVal every fall and our students go to Randers every Spring.
Students woke up bright and early every day as they followed a loose itinerary. Students visited the Aros Art Museum, where they saw the entire city of Aarhus around under them, the Opera Board Game Café in Randers, local café’s with unique cuisine, and much more. Eloi has bonded with her host family so closely that she is still in communication with the family through social media and has plans of meeting up with them again in the future.
“I was able to make a connection with my host family and learn about how they live and what their country means to them, and I would have never been able to experience that unless I had taken part in this,” said Eloi. “This is an experience I will never forget.”
Rivera noticed the differences in culture including how Danish stress the importance of “Hygge” (pronounced “hoo-gah”) a word to describe all things cozy. The word is untranslatable in English but evokes feelings of comfort.
“It was interesting because they like to keep a clean and minimalistic aesthetic,” said Sulfow. “It differs from America’s maximalistic aesthetic ,” adds Rivera.
Students in the place studies course “Magical England” taught by Brian Lutz, professor of English and Department Chair, visited Scotland and England over spring break. Students arrived a few days before the official break began and spent nearly two weeks touring the countries. Students started the day together and followed an agenda but also enjoyed free time to explore the area.
Students read novels such as Neverwhere, The Golden Compass, Rivers of London, The Hobbit, The Buried Giant. These novels featured different locations in the countries, including Edinburgh, Stratford, Oxford, Glastonbury, and London. For example, when students visited Oxford, they examined how it would inspire something like the awarding-winning fantasy trilogy, His Dark Materials.
Smith Easton ’25, a zoo science major, was especially interested in the interactive insectariums in the Natural History Museum, as he looks to enter the field of insect research post-graduation. The Natural History Museum sparked Easton’s interest in entomology even further.
“It was a surreal experience,” said Easton. “The Natural History Museum looked like a cathedral. The countries had a lot to offer.”
Abigail McCoy ’25, a zoo science major explained, “Everyone [there] was extremely proud of their country, and they were very interested in what DelVal students were doing in England, which I thought was really cool. The history in each place, and knowing the background was nice because it had a fantastical element to it,” said Abigail McCoy ’25, zoo science major.
Students studied abroad in Costa Rica through the tropical ecology course. Students spent a week at the Camaquari Conservation Initiative, where they learned and experienced exotic conservation in action.
“Studying many different ecosystems and species in person was quite the experience. Our alarm clocks were Howler Monkeys,” said Mia Pertschi ’23, a conservation and wildlife management major. “We got to see a newly found frog species (leptodactylus) that has yet to be officially identified and named!”