Hej Hej everyone! My name is Gracie and I am currently studying abroad in Copenhagen, Denmark with DIS - Study Abroad. I am a Junior studying International Affairs with a concentration in Conflict Resolution. I am approaching halfway through my semester here in Scandinavia and I wanted to write about one of the most important aspects of my time abroad: experiential learning.
Experiential learning was one of the main aspects that attracted me to DIS’s program in Copenhagen. This provider program’s hallmark is the Study Tours, built in travel with an academic focus, that make it a unique study abroad experience. When applying, I chose my Core Course, my academic focus while in Copenhagen, based on its study tours. My Core Course is Holocaust and Genocide, in which we study the mechanisms of genocide and draw connections between genocides throughout history, with a main focus on the Holocaust.
Through the first 8 weeks of the program, I have taken two Study Tours. I took a Short Study Tour in September to Hamburg, Germany to study concentration camps and the culture of telling history in Germany. It was very valuable to me to stand in these camps to understand the true magnitude of atrocity crimes. There is a main focus on academic gains during this trip, but as a class, my peers and I were able to bond through exploring a new city, eating really good German food, and playing card games and decompressing after very long emotional days.
In addition to Germany, my class travelled to Poland the first week in October to continue to expand our real-world experience with Holocaust sites. We travelled to both Warsaw and Krakow where we got to walk old cities, eat traditional Polish foods, and learn about the Holocaust at two of the concentration and extermination camps used by the Nazis. I was drawn to this Core Course because of the chance to tour these places with experts and learn first hand about what these camps looked like. Nothing could have prepared me for the size and detail of the camps when the bus drove up for the first time.
Experiential learning has made a profoundly positive impact on my academic experience here in Denmark. It may be cliche to say that experience is the best teacher, but I truly believe that my time studying abroad has proven this to be true. I could learn all the facts and read all the books, but seeing these camps, ghetto neighborhoods, and memorials strengthens understanding for the topic on a new level. These trips are something I will never forget. I am so thankful for the opportunity to learn and grow as a student over the first half of this semester and I look forward to all the learning experiences to come!
Gracie Schrader
Fall 2025
DIS - Copenhagen: Study Abroad in Scandinavia
Elliott School of International Affairs
International Affairs Major