In my Junior summer at NEU, I was accepted to a Dialogue of Civilizations program: a 1-month experience taking two classes abroad. I chose to spend my time in Sydney, Australia studying software engineering with the fantastic Ian Gorton.
While in Sydney, UTS was our home base, and for one of our two classes groups of students from the dialogue undertook research projects for UTS faculty (mine was predicting foreign exchange trading profits using machine learning). The other was a deep dive into software engineering theory, including database structures and industry practices, accompanied by a host of fabulous guest speakers.
Sydney was a deeply educational experience, not just for my academic and professional knowledge about software and machine learning, but for myself as a traveler and adventurer. Between our time exploring the city, hiking through the outback, and exploring Queensland and the glorious Australian wilderness, I learned so much about the world and the people I work best with. These sorts of experiences tend to leave you with close bonds with incredible people, and this trip was no different. I hope to take everything I learned at UTS onward into my career and my life.