Right now, I’m sitting in a café in Copenhagen, waiting for the next film in the festival to start. 

How did I get here? Last semester, I took a class called “Vernacular Filmmaking” with Professor Erika Kiss. I wrote a final paper for the course on Thomas Vinterberg, a Danish filmmaker. 

This paper inspired me to look further into Danish cinema. I spoke to my professor about it, and she encouraged me to apply for funding to explore this research further. I applied, explaining my interest, and was granted funding to study in Copenhagen for a week. During this time, I’ll be researching Danish cinema and learning about documentary filmmaking at CPH:DOX, the Copenhagen International Film Festival. 

Before I came to Princeton, the only films I watched were comedies and blockbuster hits with my family. All I knew was that I liked French and Norwegian and reading lots of books. 

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Since then, I’ve discovered so many fields. I’ve truly embraced the idea of interdisciplinary studies and taken classes about philosophy, politics, literature, languages, anthropology and film. 

As a high school student, the only path I could picture was studying English and becoming a lawyer. 

Now, it’s not so easy to plan my future. I can imagine being an anthropologist, a politician, a professor, a filmmaker, a businesswoman and even an archaeologist (inspired by my latest class on the Vikings). 

I’m enjoying my week so far in Copenhagen. I can’t wait until I find my next spark and study something completely new and exciting. 

Toward the end of my senior year in high school, I skyped my mom from my school in Norway and teasingly said, "I’m going to spend next year in China!" It was a joke, I wanted to scare her a bit and see how she yelled that I was not going to be so far away from home again. Moving away from home when I was just 16 years old and studying in a boarding school in Norway had been a great adventure, yet it had also been hard to leave my family behind when I was so young. It was this distance and fear of forever being away that was making my decision to pick a university so hard. I did not know where to go. I knew my mom was also afraid that we would gradually grow more distant, so going to China was, in all seriousness, a complete joke. Instead, she was ecstatic when she heard my false news. She soon started telling me about all her adventures in China when she had lived there before I was born. She asked me a million questions and grew more excited as I mumbled and tried to satisfy her curiosity by reading the information in the pamphlet I held in my hand.

I had gotten my Princeton acceptance packet a few days earlier. Inside it, I had found a brochure about the University’s Bridge Year Program. At first, I ignored it; taking a gap year was not a thing people did in Spain, and it felt more like something high school students in Hollywood movies would do. And it did sound really movie-like: "a tuition-free program that allows a select number of incoming freshmen to begin their Princeton experience by engaging in nine months of University-sponsored service at one of five international locations." Why would the University want its students to start off their degree by going away? I read over it and glanced at the pictures, never actually thinking that months later it would be me who would be standing on a mountain in Yunnan. The five locations offered that year were India, China, Peru, Senegal and Brazil; China felt both the furthest and coolest.

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After that Skype call, I reread the brochure, I researched the program and read blog entries from current and past participants. Suddenly, spending a year in China seemed more exciting. I also wanted to befriend the taxi drivers of Kunming and learn how to cook Chinese dishes like the past participants said they had done. I wanted to learn Mandarin and hike around Western China, learn more about community-based initiatives and how to appreciate a new culture. So I decided to apply.

In order to start my application and be able to do the program, I first had to be a Princeton student, so I quickly accepted the University offer. Ironically, it was this possibility of a bridge year in China that made my college decision so easy. Looking back now, I find it funny; I could very easily not have selected to participate in the Bridge Year Program. But I think it was more the fact that Princeton was offering that opportunity to its admitted students, that it saw the many benefits of spending time abroad, of experiential learning and highlighted the importance of multicultural understanding that made me pick the University. I had a great high school experience where I had learned to view education as much more than classes and textbooks, and it seemed that Princeton also thought being outside of the classroom could bring many benefits.

That year in China has defined not only my Princeton experience but also my identity in more ways that I could possibly describe. It made me passionate about so many things that are now vital to me, it made me a more adventurous and confident person, it completely altered my worldview and deepened my interest in a whole new region. It even brought me closer to my family, as I was able to share a similar experience to the one that my mom had living in China when she was in her thirties. It was this - a joke about a brochure - that made it possible for me to be writing this blog post from my room on Princeton’s campus, yet I still think that imagining oneself participating in the opportunities that each University offers, and thinking about which ones can make one grow most might be a great way of making this college decision. Good luck, everyone!

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One of the top things to do before graduation is to take a trip with a class or club. I’ve known people who have traveled over breaks to South Africa or London to sing or to Venice or China to research. During this past intersession, the period between fall and spring semester, I went to Paris with L’Avant-Scène, the French theater group on campus. We perform plays in French from the traditional French repertoire such as Molière, Feydeau and new classics like Wajdi Mouawad and Jean-Luc Lagarce.

Florent Masse, the French professor in charge of this troupe, has been taking newcomers to the troupe to Paris since 2004. Normally, there are about five or six people on this trip, but this year there were only three of us. So, we invited a few students studying abroad in Paris to join us at some of our activities. The schedule for the week consisted of drama instruction, activities for cultural enrichment and a play every night.

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We spent some time walking around Paris, visiting the Louvre and enjoying macarons, hot chocolate and crêpes. Most of our days, however, were spent at the Conservatoire National Supérieur d'Art Dramatique (CNSAD). There, we interacted with aspiring thespians and famous professors who helped us delve more deeply into our work. We had the pleasure of participating in a 3-hour dance class and several other theater classes that focused on character development and movement on stage. In the middle of the trip, we were able to watch a class on masks. It was quite an invigorating experience to perform alongside these energetic French actors.

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Every night, we went to plays at some of the best theaters in Paris such as La Comédie Française. We saw a total of eight plays. Our group preferred Molière’s hysterical Les Fourberies de Scapin at La Comédie Française and the heart-wrenching Saigon performed at the Odéon-Théâtre de l'Europe. After the play, we chatted with the actors. We met some stars of French theater: Loic Corbery, Claude Mathieu and even Xavier Gallais. All of them, despite being extremely accomplished and talented, were extremely humble and excited to interact with us and answer our questions.

I could not have made this voyage without the support of Florent Masse and Princeton. It’s often said here that Princeton opens doors. This was certainly true of this week.

One of my favorite times of the year is when it is time to decide what to do with my summer months. I jump from website to website imagining myself all over the world pursuing different programs! I come from a different educational system where summers are not meant to be "productive," and I was used to relaxing by the beach for the past 18 summers. As a first year student, I was extremely excited to see all the places Princeton could take me during those three long summer months.

Unable to pick just one program to participate in among the many Princeton summer offerings, after my first year, I decided to attend two Princeton language programs. I was fortunate enough to spend a month in Munich learning German followed by two months in Beijing learning Mandarin. These programs are just two examples of the many intensive language programs the University offers in places all around the world such as Spain, Argentina, France, Japan, Russia, Brazil and Tanzania. They normally offer intermediate and advanced language classes while also including a variety of cultural activities so that we can better understand and explore the country. Many of them are also "total immersion" programs which means that during the duration of the program, the students can only speak the language they are learning. This, of course, can be really challenging but also a lot of fun! People develop different personality traits and senses of humor when speaking in a foreign language so it is a great way to meet new people or further develop existing friendships in a completely different context to Princeton’s campus.

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My experiences participating in both programs were great and also very different from one another. Princeton in Munich was just one month, and German is an easier language to learn in a more casual context. We had three hours of language class per day at the Goethe Institut in Munich and then spent a lot of time just exploring the city and other places in Bavaria. On the other hand, Princeton in Beijing is jokingly referred to as "Prison in Beijing" because there is a lot of work during the whole two months of the program’s duration. On top of the four hours of morning class, each student has a one-hour individual tutorial session in the afternoon, daily quizzes and weekly exams. While it is a lot of work, I found the program extremely rewarding because it helped me greatly improve my Mandarin in a short period of time while being in constant contact with awesome Chinese instructors. During the weekends we also had time to explore Beijing, which is a wonderful and incredibly historically rich city. It was great to have the opportunity to experience the country that we were learning about first-hand. If you are interested in learning a new language, these immersion programs might be a great option for the summer.

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Last semester, I spent the semester abroad in Panama. I was part of a unique program run through the ecology and evolutionary biology department. When I first started thinking about going abroad, one of my biggest concens was "FOMO": fear of missing out. Would I miss out on fun events with my friends? Would I be sad that I wouldn’t attend spring events such as the annual dodgeball tournament or Communiversity (arts festival)? Would I be upset when I saw Facebook photos of my friends all having a great time without me?

However, once I went to Pamana, I quickly realized that none of those fears mattered. Sure, my friends were having a good time without me, and yes, I was missing out on events, but I was also doing incredible things. When my friends were having a movie night, I was busy celebrating Carnival (a celebration with parades, floats, music and dancing) and going hiking in a rainforest. When they were going out to dinner on Nassau Street, I was busy snorkeling and going to karaoke parties. I was having unique and special experiences that I wouldn’t have been able to have anywhere else. Plus, I was making new friends and getting to explore a new country.

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Another thing that really helped was that I had WiFi and could stay in touch with my friends and family. I didn’t get to talk to them everyday, as I might have back at school, but I was able to Skype when I had free time. I think in some ways it may have even been more special because I had the designated time to catch up with them rather than constantly seeing them in passing at school and remaking how we wanted to get a meal and catch up. Also, for any of you with significant others, rest assured that your relationship can remain and potentially even become stronger while you are abroad.

Upon arrival back at campus, I was also a little frightened about what it would be like. Would people remember me? Would people even have noticed that I was gone? Yet, as soon as I stepped back on campus in May and visited the clubs and organizations where I spent the majority of my time, my fears vanished. I was immediately welcomed back and people constantly came up to me asking how my semester was. It was such a great feeling knowing that my friends did miss me and that they wanted to hear all about my experiences.

All in all, I would honestly say that my social life was not affected by my semester abroad, and if anything, it improved. I met a new group of friends whom with I was able to share a crazy and meaningful experience. Now that I’ve experienced the first half of a real semester back at Princeton, it feels like nothing has changed. I don’t feel out of touch with any aspect of campus life. Things feel normal, despite having been away for a semester.  

The school year is finally over and that means it's time for students to disperse and do myriad activities for the summer. Some go home and visit family, some may actually go and take more classes over the summer or some may stay and work on campus. Then there are those students, like myself, who applied and were accepted into the University's International Internship Program (IIP), where students are given the opportunity to work in a range of possible fields of interest all across the world for eight weeks. I am currently working at Vieira de Almeida & Associados, a renowned law firm here in Lisbon, Portugal.

I have been here for three weeks already and I've enjoyed every minute of it, both the city itself as well as my internship. Lisbon, although it can be a bit hilly, is a wonderful city to walk around, enjoy the nearly ever-shining sun and the cool breeze all the while experiencing an unusual blend of historic and modern style. On multiple occasions some friends and I have visited the beach at Carcavelos and have gotten nice tans. We were fortunate enough to arrive during the Santo António national holiday where the town of Alfama celebrates en masse with great music, lovely food (a lot of fish I must admit) and a vast amount of happy faces.

As far as my actual job is concerned, I couldn't have asked for a more welcoming and interesting place to be. The one way I consistently describe it to people is that it seems like a blend of the Silicon Valley startup culture with a law firm. Everyone seems rather young, enthusiastic and passionate. Currently, the firm is working to be at the forefront of legal innovation and policy. I am working as a researcher in the business development office investigating market trends and preparing PowerPoint reports describing where the future of law is headed in various sectors. My supervisor is very nice and quite helpful, but then again so is everyone I've come into contact with at the office. Colleagues I had just met invited me to dinner, and I had an amazing and hilarious time. I may have five weeks left, but I know that time is going to fly by, so I definitely will strive to make the most out of every minute I still have here. Princeton has provided me with a great opportunity so I can't afford to waste it, now can I?

If you had told me my first year that I would choose to study abroad, I would have thought you were crazy. Why on earth would I want to leave a place like Princeton? After all, hadn’t I worked hard my whole life to attend this school? Why would I want to willingly leave such an amazing school to go study elsewhere? However, after spending the past three months in Panama, I can honestly say that studying abroad was one of the best decisions I ever made at Princeton.

Living in another country gave me the chance to learn about a new culture, meet new people and find new places to explore. I improved my Spanish and learned what it means to do field research. Most importantly though, I learned how to live in the moment and appreciate the small things.

I have been living at Princeton for more than two and a half years now. I know the ins and outs of the school. I know the dirt paths that I can take to cut 30 seconds off my commute from up campus to down campus. I know where to find late night snacks and cookies. I know in which study spots I am most productive. I know how to run from volleyball practice to bio review sessions strategically so that I am not missing more than 5 minutes of either. I’ve become so used to campus that I am constantly moving from one thing to another, never stopping to smell the flowers. In Panama, apart from literally stopping to smell (and count and watch for hours) every single flower in my transect (see my previous blog post here), I took the time to stop and admire everything since it was all new to me.

I would look at every billboard on the side of the road, trying to translate it from Spanish to English. I would "oooh" and "ahhh" at the beautiful trees and flowers we saw on our walks through the forest. I would make smoothies from the mangos that fell from the tree outside our schoolhouse. I would look for dolphins every time the ocean was in view. I wanted to see everything and not miss out on any experience or opportunity that presented itself to me.

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Now that I’m back on campus, I have a new set of eyes. Everything that was once common is new once again. The beautiful architecture of Blair Arch causes me to pause as I walk by. The buildings that were remodeled while I was gone entice me to enter and visit. Even the posters on the lamp posts that I always used to walk by cause me to stop and see what is happening on campus. I’m spending time to look all around me and appreciate the beauty that Princeton is.

Studying abroad opened my eyes to the world around me. This is a lesson that I don’t believe I could have learned in the classroom. It required exposing myself to a new situation filled with new people and new experiences. I am so grateful for the opportunity I had. If there were one piece of advice I can offer to younger students considering studying abroad, it would be to GO! Go out into the world and experience life. Find some place that excites you. It is 100% worth it. Study abroad was one of the most formative experiences, and I know I will carry the lessons I learned in Panama with me for the rest of my life.  

“Hi, I’m sorry to bother you, but I saw your ‘Princeton Dad’ shirt and I just had to ask, do you currently have a student at Princeton?” This was how I started a conversation with a total stranger last summer when I was working in Key Largo, Florida. I had been living in the Keys all summer and had not seen or heard about any other person related to Princeton in months. Therefore, when I saw this man who was visiting the same beach, I just had to find out if I knew his son or daughter. Well, it turns out his daughter was a graduate student in the MAE (Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering) Department and I had no idea who she was. Yet, by reaching out to him, we ended up having a great conversation about Princeton and the research his daughter was doing. Although I had just met this father I felt connected to my Princeton family.         

While I do remember the lesson my mother told me about refraining from talking to strangers, there is something about Princeton that encourages me to reach out to other members of our community. I love hearing the stories from alumni about their experiences and how the campus has changed since they graduated. I also love meeting fellow students whom I had not had the chance to meet earlier on in my Princeton career. Sometimes, my attempts at conversation leave me looking silly, but other times, they have helped me tremendously.

For example, when I was recently studying abroad in Panama, I was given the contact information of a family who could help me find Shabbat services and kosher food while I was abroad. I had absolutely no connection to them apart from the fact that one of their sons was a Class of ’06 graduate and that they were Jewish. I sent an email introducing myself, explaining how I would be studying in Panama for a few months and asked tons of questions of what life was like there. Even though they had long since moved away from home, this family took me in and became my adopted Panamanian family. They invited me over for holidays, gave me warm food and let me stay at their house. I am thankful that Princeton provided me with the opportunity to be introduced to this family.

In a slightly different example, when I flew back to campus in January, I was waiting for my luggage at baggage claim when a girl came up to me and asked if I went to Princeton. She had seen the orange Princeton bag tag on my suitcase and figured there was a good chance I was a fellow Princetonian.  She explained that she was a first-year student and had never gone back to campus on her own. She was looking for someone to help her. Of course, I was more than willing to explain the train process and go with her back to campus. We ended up talking the entire ride back and now we are good friends on campus.

I’ve met so many fellow Princetonians out and about. I can’t tell you how many wonderful conversations I have had with total strangers in the airport because of my Princeton sweatshirt. I have met alumni, fellow classmates and even professors from the University. My conversations are always engaging and I learn something new about the University every time I meet someone.

Furthermore, our alumni network is so helpful when searching for jobs and internship opportunities. Alumni are always willing to provide advice and even help with job opportunities. While I personally haven’t taken advantage of this resource yet, I know in the coming years once I graduate, this will be extremely helpful.

It may be hard to understand, but once you become a Princeton Tiger, you are able to connect with an entire community of people offering their experience and guidance. These people may provide engaging conversation while you’re stuck on an airplane or they may be a wonderful resource when you are abroad. Whatever the case may be, they’re proud to be a Princetonian, and I am too.

Cochabamba is a city in Bolivia known for its water. Ever since the 2001 Water War, the struggle for fair access to water enveloped the city in a brutal back and forth between national police and citizen brigades. In fact, Cochabamba’s Water War is one of the only examples of a united populace forcing the de-privatization of a public good since the 1980s, when global institutions started enforcing neoliberal policies in developing countries. Fundación Abril, an organization that fights for water and sanitization for all, was both birthed from the Water War and named for it — Abril meaning April as that was the last month of fighting in 2001 before the water was given back to the people. Oscar Olivera founded the Fundación after serving as the face and voice of the popular revolt. This context has been key to my experience volunteering for Oscar and Fundación Abril.

Fundación Abril’s main goals are to increase access to clean water as a common good and to collectively support labor and community. This mission takes many shapes, from rainwater catchment in schools without running water to urban gardens and workshops on organic farming. As a volunteer, I have been lucky enough to work on a variety of the small projects that make up the Fundación’s larger vision: I have helped students harvest vegetables in their own school garden, poured cement for water tank construction and translated grant applications from Spanish to English. No day is average; I enjoy running around to different parts of the city. I have been able to meet incredible people and discover a new set of passions because I have such a diverse portfolio of responsibilities. I think the breadth of Fundación Abril’s vision comes from its origins. After the Water War, how could one separate a community’s connection to the land from their resistance to foreign corporate interest? The Water War brought seemingly disparate issues into scope as part of the same wider conflict.

Having studied the Water War, working with Oscar has felt like working alongside a piece of history. But the vibe in our office has always been one of equal partnership. I am just a volunteer, but the staff at Fundación Abril has made me feel included from the beginning. On my first day, I walked in on a meeting with Fundación’s leadership,  so I asked if I should sit outside until it was over. They told me to pull up a chair and listen. Everyone there understands that we need to work side by side in order to achieve the organization’s ambitious goals.

My time at Fundación Abril has taught me that the mission and intention of who I work for is more important than organizational resources or size. It’s a question of values, and I finally understand where my values lie. I will always choose listening before speaking, local activists before foreign NGOs, and on-the-ground solutions before worldwide plans. I guess I can add that to the long list of things I am taking away from my Bridge Year experience. At Princeton, I will be sure to incorporate what I learned from Oscar and Fundación Abril into what I choose to study and pursue.

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To answer the most frequently asked question I get from prospective students: It's super cool!

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Basically, being a Computer Science (COS) major means that I have to take eight departmental classes, which are COS classes that are 300-level or higher. COS courses are typically lecture-style classes, and the coursework involves programming assignments, problem sets and final projects. There's no one course that all COS majors are required to take, and it's nice having so many options for classes. (See listing of COS classes here.)

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Because I'm pursing an A.B. degree (as opposed to B.S.E. - read about the differences here), I have to do four semesters of independent work, which means I get to work on projects of my choosing, learn about whatever I want to learn about, and then write a report about it. For my junior fall, I wanted to learn how to make a mobile app, so I built an Android app that uses geofencing to deliver push notifications about public events happening in nearby parks. In my junior spring, I wanted to brush up on my web development skills, so I made a website that made URLs human-readable and then conducted a user study. For my senior year, I wanted to engage more with people, so I'm interviewing people and writing my thesis about it! If you're curious, my thesis is about smart homes, privacy and the Internet of Things. :)

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Since declaring COS as my major sophomore spring, I've taken two COS classes each semester, plus independent work. About half of my studies are dedicated to COS, and the other half is filled with whatever else I want to study--English, French, Chinese, dance, music and anything that strikes my fancy to round out my liberal arts education.

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Additionally, I'm super grateful for the fact that being a COS major has, quite literally, taken me places: I've gotten to work in San Francisco and Seattle the past two summers, and I spent my junior spring studying abroad at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland. This spring break, I also got to travel to Berlin for the Fung Global Forum: "Can Liberty Survive a Digital Age?"

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I'm so happy to be a Computer Science major and have certainly enjoyed my Princeton academic experience. Hopefully you've gotten a good taste of what it's like to be a Computer Science major here at Princeton, as well!