I learned more about myself in these 4 months than I would have just being at my home institution. I learned how to be with myself and be a self-motivated individual. It forced me to become more independent in the best way and make decisions. This program

is run more like a grad school program and is heavily based on field-learning and experiences. It's a refreshing break from the American university system and broadens your scope and forces you to compare how you like to learn. There were countless excursions coupled with class time. The academic advisor and coordinator really made this program, it wouldn't have been the same without them. There are so many opportunities to take advantage of and this programs offers you the ability to enhance you future career and make important connections.

Studying in Iceland provided me with a very unique opportunity to study climate change in a place where the extreme effects are being felt everyday. This program provided a hands on academic opportunity and amazing experiences traveling around the coast

of Iceland. I learned so much on this program and developed interests in new areas that I had not focused on before. The highlights of my time in Iceland included homestays, attending the Arctic Circle Conference, and the development of individual research projects that resulted in a final presentation. The natural environment of Iceland never ceased to amaze me and each day brought something special. Double rainbows, northern lights, and endless vistas were the norm throughout my time in Iceland.

SIT Iceland and Greenland excels based on the people who run it, the ones in it with you, the setting, and your own personal curiosity. Firstly, the trip leaders are phenomenal, always joking and being relatable but also being brilliant scientists in

their own right. The classes they teach are engaging and interesting, and I feel like I learned a lot about the areas where we were both in the classroom and outside from them. They're also unbelievably supportive in every way. This program also gives an amazing opportunity to get close with your classmates, who you're with almost all the time the whole semester. I also loved the homestay, where I got to really immerse myself in Icelandic culture and feel like I was a local for a while. I will say, this experience felt too short, since I often felt like an outsider during the rest of the program. Although we were studying in these amazing locations rich with culture, we often just spent time with the other Americans in the program. This may just be a matter of how close we were, but it also felt like the program didn't encourage us to connect with the people in our locations. If you put in the effort outside the classroom to engage with your environment and follow your own curiosity, there's tons to learn and an amazing experience to be had.

I learned a lot during this program. I came in with almost no prior knowledge about environmental science and left feeling like I really understood climate change. There wasn't much busy work so I didn't feel swamped or stressed throughout the semester. We

moved around a lot in Iceland, and each time the accommodations were really well-organized. We stayed mostly in hostels (6-8 people per room, but we only shared rooms with other students in the program). We also had a 3-week homestay in Isafjordur, which was a great experience. I really loved my homestay family. One student in my group had a problem with their homestay family and was switched immediately. Breakfast was provided. We got a generous meal stipend for lunch and dinner. Cooking in hostels was sometimes tough, but a fun experience.

This program was not very rigorous but it made learning fun again. We saw so many sights in Iceland and Greenland that I had never heard of but that I would return to in a heartbeat. The independent study project made me more confident in my research,

presentation, and communication skills.