ADVENTURES AT FRANKLIN

Hello everyone! Welcome back! I had a lovely winter break and hope that you all did as well. Us students arrived back on campus last week, and now that I am finally unpacked and settled in a little, I finally had the time to write this post. I have some super exciting things coming up this semester on the blog! I can't wait to share them with you!  a) I am going to do a little FAQ on financial aid at Franklin  b) I am collaborating with several other Franklin students on a videography project entitled "Faces of Franklin" that showcases a diverse array of Franklin students and Franklin experiences c) I am stoked for my next academic travel to... (drum roll please) .... BOTSWANA! You heard that right, I will be spending two weeks in sub-saharan Africa come this March. We will mainly be in Botswana, but also Zimbabwe and South Africa, studying environmental conservation while camping in the wilderness. I am so grateful for this opportunity and I will definitely wr...

The winter holiday season in Europe can be so magical and Franklin students are lucky to be immersed in it for a few weeks before the semester ends. Lugano may not be a big city, but its tree is the largest one I have seen yet!!  It dominates the city's main piazza, towering above the nearby buildings! Curious about how it arrived in this, not too large, town square? Well by helicopter of course! Scroll to 1:00min and check the video out HERE as captured by a local news crew!  We take holiday tree installation very seriously here in Switzerland :)  Lugano also has the most delicious food stands spread across the city during the winter holidays. For eighteen years of my life I was missing out on the warm and yummy goodness that is a roasted chestnut. Sure, during the holidays I would sing THIS carol with the phrase "chestnuts roasting on an open fire", yet I never realized that people still ate chestnuts.. I don't know what my deal was, but I thought that ...

Why hello there! Happy December! I can hardly believe that November is already over, where did the time go?? I have final projects due this week, final exams next week and then in 13 days I will be back state side for the holiday break! I can hardly believe it! November was filled with some awesome activities around campus too, here is just a brief recap: At the beginning of the month Franklin hosted its 5th annual Be The Change Social Justice Conference. In addition to a weekend retreat, the conference included a week of thought provoking activities open to all students. I was asked to speak on religious tolerance as part of an evening activity for one of the nights. We had some awesome discussions and I was so happy to participate! The theme of this years conference was "finding your roots" and all of the weekly events focused on this in addition to raising awareness and empathy in the community for a variety of social justice issues.  Shoutout to these lovely ladi...

Wondering what it takes to get into Franklin? Wanting to find a school that is the right fit for you? Curious about student life? I've gotten a lot of admissions related questions this week, so I decided that a "prospective student frequently asked questions" post was in order! ^^ This is a picture I snapped today on my walk home from class, not particularly related to this post but if you were wondering what autumn looks like in Lugano, there is your answer! Academics At Franklin The travel opportunities are great, but they are FAR from everything Franklin Switzerland has to offer. Getting a university education abroad is much different than just living abroad for a year. Not only do students spend the academic year immersed in and exploring European culture, but Franklin also provides many educational opportunities which challenge students of all levels. I know I have grown academically over the last two years and learned much! What majors are offered at Fr...

A little post about a little country today! Montenegro has (oddly enough) been on my bucket list for quiet some time now! It started out when Jay Gatsby told Nick Caraway that he carries around a medal that was awarded  for "Valour Extraordinary" during WWI by Montenegro. Then, when James Bond's Casino Royale was set in Bukva, Montenegro, my interest was only further piqued. All in all, it was not exactly what I expected [read: no Daniel Craig] but I am glad that I got a chance to add another stamp to my passport! Not to mention that I got to visit one of the world's newest countries. Montenegro only declared its independence from Serbia in 2006. Also, despite the long drive, I was not kidding when I said the country is little! Montenegro is about the size of Connecticut, meaning that you could fit 35 Montenegro's in the state of California!  To get to the old capital city of Cetinje we had to drive our bus onto a ferry (^^) and sail across a lake befo...

What an experience! I loved visiting Sarajevo because it felt like I was taking a mini trip to Turkey! The turkish influence there is undeniable. Our hotel was located right next to the town bazar (turkish style market) with hundreds of shops selling handmade jewelry, hand woven rugs, spices, textiles etc. Not to mention that I had the best honey drizzled baklava of my life at a little street cafe here! I love the feeling of this city and its deep (albeit tragic) history. At one time it was a trade mecca, a principle stop on the Silk Route. In fact Sarajevo was so developed that it was the 2nd city in the world (after London) to get electricity in the 1890s. Unfortunately, several wars have nearly decimated the city. Most recently the Siege of Sarajevo (1992-1996) resulted in the destruction of 90% of the cities infrastructure. Reconstruction efforts are still going on today. In fact the week we visited they just were taking their first census since the war, a war which happened...

HIGHLIGHTS: - visiting Josip Broz Tito's grave. Yugoslavian leader from 1945 -- 1980 - staying at a fancy hotel with famous guests!  - exploring the many areas of the city which still are scarred by the most recent wars in the 1990s  - meeting with staff at the OSCE's (Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe) mission to Serbia and discussing their goals. - standing on the very hill where clashes between Western and Eastern Empires occurred Serbia's aggression towards Kosovo lead to a NATO bombing campaign of 1999 which left the Serbian Foreign Ministry building (and many others) in shambles. That was more than a decade ago yet it stands today in more or less the same state it was in 1999, minus the trees.  Finally getting some use out of my passport pages! In the European Union and Schengen visa areas they rarely stamp your passport. But Serbia is not EU so I finally got a stamp! Although nothing will beat the border agent in Croatia who gav...