You might not know Sara Luzuriaga ‘21, because she doesn’t have any social media. Why is that? Because she’s just simply ~not like other girls~. And also because she really enjoyed the unplugged experience she had in Yale’s Travel Writing program in Auvillar, France. HerCampus sat down with Sara to hear about her summer experience.
Q: Tell me a little bit about your summer program. How did you find it and what made you choose it?
A: I did the Yale Summer Session travel writing program in Auvillar, France. I just found out about it from the Yale Abroad website. I chose it because I wanted to go to the south of France, loved the idea of having no internet for a month, and I wanted the opportunity to dedicate four weeks of my life to just writing.
Q: What were some highlights of your experience?
A: I met some of my closest friends in Auvillar — we lived thirteen of us in a creaky old haunted house, and spent the days lounging around the balconies, writing essays, and drinking rosé. Since there was no internet, we actually had to talk to each other — when we didn’t know something, we couldn’t google it; we had to ask each other and come to our own conclusions.
Q: Who you recommend this program to another student? What kind of student do you think would enjoy/benefit from this program?
A: I’d recommend this to any student who loves to write, who wants a break from the constant flood of information that we face everyday, and who is committed to the idea of being sans internet. After the program, I deleted all social media! Also, the sheer amount of work we produced made it easy, on a practical level, to apply for upper-level writing courses at Yale.
Writing, rosé, and haunted houses pique your interest? Thinking about applying? Email Sara at sara.luzuriaga@yale.edu. She would love nothing more than an excuse to talk about this program.