Name: Casey Goulden
Year: Junior
Major: Counseling and Human Services
Hometown: Trumbull, Connecticut
Casey Goulden is a junior studying counseling and human services here at the University of Scranton. She has been part of Her Campus for the past three semesters, and she has been loving it! A few days ago, I got the opportunity to sit down with her and discuss her recent trip to Ireland while studying abroad. Studying abroad is quite popular here at the U, so if you’re considering it, hopefully this will help you make your final decision.
HC: How did you spend this past intercession?
CG: I studied abroad in Dingle, Ireland for two weeks. When I was there I took a Celtic Religious Traditions class.
HC: What made you decide to go to Dingle?
CG: My family on both sides are Irish, so I knew I wanted to go to Ireland at some point in my life. I chose Dingle because Scranton offers a program through Sacred Heart University for studying abroad, which I was immediately interested in.
HC: Why did you choose to study abroad during intercession, rather than a semester or the summer?
CG: I feel like I would get home sick if I stayed for a long period of time. I think two weeks is the perfect amount of time because Dingle is really small, so I still got to see everything. If I spent more time there, it probably would have gotten repetitive and I would have missed being home with my friends and family.
Q: What did your typical daily routine consist of?
A: I would wake up at 8am and then I would go try a different café each morning for breakfast. My class started at 9am and would go on for four hours with a 30-minute break in between. During my break, I would go into town for quick lunch. After my class ended, I would spend the rest of my day either at one of the local pubs or I would just go explore Dingle.
Q: What was your favorite part of the trip?
A: There was one day that I went on a boat trip and got to see the famous dolphin that lives in the Dingle Peninsula. His name was Fungi. According to people in Ireland he was foreseen in that area in 1943 and has been around since then, so it was really cool to see him in person.
Q: What did you learn from this experience?
A: I learned that it’s important to get out of your comfort zone and explore places that you haven’t been to. Since I went through Sacred Heart University, I didn’t know too many people on the trip, so studying abroad there for almost two weeks was definitely a step out of my own comfort zone. Life’s too short, so I wanted to try something new, while exploring and meeting new people.
Q: Would you consider studying abroad again?
A: Yes, 100% percent. I’d either want to go to either Australia or Spain.
Q: If you could give any advice to students who are thinking about studying abroad, what would it be?
A: I would tell them to just go for it, even if you’re on the fence. Look into it more and do a lot of research on different areas you may want to go to. If you don’t feel like committing for a whole semester, you could always just go for intercession, since it was only 12 days. But if you want to spend more time there, then you should go for part of the summer or even a semester. This opportunity probably won’t come again, so take it while it’s here. It was a great experience and I would definitely recommend studying abroad.