My STEP Signature Project was an Education Abroad trip through City and Regional Planning. It was about Sustainable Urban Planning, and we traveled to Copenhagen, Berlin and Barcelona to meet with various city planning firms to learn about how they are sustainably designing their cities.
Before this trip, I had never traveled outside of the States. I had also never really traveled anywhere without my family, so this trip was the first time on my own, far from home. Because this trip gave us so much freedom to explore the cities on our own, it’s made me feel more confident about traveling and discovering the world in the future. It has broadened my understanding of myself and given me the confidence to embark on journeys by myself, whereas before the trip I never would’ve thought I had the ability to do so. It was transformative in the sense that I now feel confident in my abilities to travel by myself, whereas before the trip I did not feel as though I could do so, because I thought new cities were so hard to navigate. It was also transformative because before the trip, I had not been exposed to different cultures or really spoken to people living in other countries – this trip gave me a deeper appreciation and understanding for citizens of other countries, and showed me how similar they are to U.S. citizens, and how our differences can help us all learn more about the world together.
Some of the key aspects that led to this transformation include the various interactions that I had with locals in the different cities. I had the chance to talk to a refugee from Africa that was living in Berlin, and listening to him talk about his life opened up my eyes to the world happening outside the U.S. We live in a bubble in the United States, especially in Columbus, and these conversations were truly humbling and gave me a deeper understanding of what real world issues that people are facing in other places. This has made me want to make improvements in the world in order to help those who don’t have it as easy as we do in the U.S, and has even influenced my decision to go to law school after I graduate so that I have more power to help others in my future.
Another transformational experience was when I went out by myself one day in Berlin and explored. I never would have thought that I could just wander around a huge European by myself before, and this trip gave me the confidence to do so. Now I feel more equipped to handle any city, and I used this new found confidence to take a road trip to Maine recently and explore Boston and New York, which I probably would not have done before I had gone to Europe.
Finally, meeting with a biking infrastructure firm and riding around on bikes through Copenhagen has transformed me because it has opened my eyes to the benefits of biking, as exemplified by the prominence of biking and lack of cars in that city. Ever since that trip, I have been more conscious of my modes of transportation and have relied more heavily on walking or biking than on cars, because in Copenhagen I experienced how efficient biking can be.
These transformations have deeply impacted my life back at home. I have decided to go to law school after I graduate partly because of the refugee’s stories I heard about in Berlin that have stuck with me. In addition, the transformation of gaining confidence has allowed me to broaden my potential law school choices, because I now feel confident and independent enough that I can live in a new city by myself and navigate just fine. Also, I have planned a trip to Asia for next year because this trip has given me the yearning to travel the world more.
