I didn't know anyone who had previously participated in EuroScholars at my home university, but I chose to dive into the semi-unknown anyway. When I got here, I was very nervous because I wasn't sure what to expect beyond what the general topic that my lab group was working on. My professor (Astrid van Wieringen) and the two PhD students (Charlotte Vercammen and Tine Goossens) were so welcoming and helpful when it came to my work. I knew so little about audiology when I got here and the other students in my lab had studied it in their Bachelors and were either completing their Masters or PhD while working in the lab. The bottom line was that I felt pretty in over my head at the beginning. After a while I felt much more at home with the research and got the chance to collect my own data and perform experiments myself. It was so amazing to experience the life of a real researcher and graduate student while I'm still in my undergrad and I believe I've learned a lot from the EuroScholars program. 

EuroScholars MidStay:

Before the MidStay program in May, I was very unsure about how things were going to go. I really wanted to get to know the other US students who were having the same experience across Europe and felt that we wouldn't really get the chance to know each other in only three short days. Looking back, it would have been amazing to spend more time with the group, but we did get the chance to know each other and I believe that having this common and unique experience has truly bonded us. When our MidStay ended on Friday, some of us wanted to spend more time together and decided to plan a weekend trip to Amsterdam. It was so much fun to learn more about my peers, not just what they have done this semester, but more about their lives back home as well. We got to wander through one of the most unique cities that I have ever been to and it was a blast.