CET Academic Programs

Being in a small cohort can be good or bad. The bad is that the social safety net is small, so it can be hard to make good connections. A pro is that when you do make these connections, they’re strong because no one understands being abroad in Colombia like those in your cohort. Another con is that you may have to compromise some of your wants because you don’t have different friends for different things. A pro is that this can lead to new experiences and more intentional connection-building!!!!

I had an incredible experience in Amman with CET Jordan! We were constantly in a state of learning throughout our entire time in the program. Every moment became a teaching moment, which I loved. Every class learns a Jordanian recipe with their teachers and we get the opportunity to go shopping for ingredients with our teachers. Upon our return from this grocery excursion, my teacher brought out the dallah and served us Arabic coffee as many Jordanians would do upon returning home from an errand. On another occasion, a few of us went out to buy shemaghs in preparation for our trip to Wadi Rum. One of the teachers pulled us aside and taught us how to put them on in order to block the sand from our faces. She even had us take a video to send to the other students if needed.

I hate to define my experience by the end, but it has cast quite a large shadow over the semester. Unfortunately, I was in Jordan when the war started between the US, Israel, and Iran. As you can imagine, this was very shocking to a group of Americans who had never experienced anything quite like it in our lifetimes before. Most Jordanians still lived their lives normally while Americans were told by our embassy to shelter in place, so our classes were moved online for a day. The next day, we were given the choice between going into the CET Center for classes or staying online once more. On the third day of classes during the war, we all went in person for a program wide meeting during which we were told we had to leave the country. We journeyed home and continued classes online from there. I am incredibly grateful to our teachers in Jordan for being so accommodating timewise as our classes took place from the mornings to the early afternoons in Eastern Standard Time.

I will say that our teachers did their best to keep us as immersed in Arabic as possible despite being in an English speaking country. This immersion did grow isolating at points, I often spent almost 12 hours a day alone in my room to attend various sessions of Office Hours, meetings with my language partner, classes, and not to mention the amount of homework I was being assigned.

CET Colombia provided a unique opportunity to experience Colombian culture, improve my Spanish, and learn about the country's history and social issues through direct engagement with local communities and coursework. I appreciated the excursions and the chance to explore different regions of Colombia. The program also encouraged cultural immersion by promoting interaction with local residents and organizations. While the experience was valuable overall, some aspects could be improved, such as communication about certain logistics and providing students with more information about expectations and resources before arrival. Overall, the program offered meaningful academic and cultural experiences that helped broaden my perspective and deepen my understanding of Colombia.

I really enjoyed my time abroad, but the biggest downside was the academics. At times I felt my professors weren't fully qualified to teach the courses they'd been assigned. The program also felt less prestigious than expected, since the education side wasn't actually run through NTU. Most importantly, if you're hoping for an easy semester abroad with a relaxed attendance requirement, this isn't the place, the attendance policy is strict.

Other than that, I have nothing negative to say. The staff is incredibly supportive and engaging, and they went out of their way to make sure we had a great time. Taipei is amazing, and the housing the program provided was beautiful and in a fantastic location. The staff made the entire study-abroad process feel welcoming, comforting, and never intimidating. I also made lifelong friends through my roommates, they pair you with locals from Taiwan, and those are connections I'll keep forever.

Studying abroad in Siena through CET was one of the best experiences of my life, and I mean that without exaggeration.

There's something about being dropped into a foreign country and having to figure it out that no classroom can replicate. But what made this specific program special was Siena itself: a city with more going on beneath the surface than most people realize.

Learning about the Contrada system, the rivalries, the identity people build around their neighborhood from birth. It made me understand that some cultures run so much deeper than what tourists ever see.

We traveled most weekends. Bologna's food scene and student energy hit different from anywhere else in Italy. Venice during festival season was something I'll remember for the rest of my life, same with Rome and its history. Every city taught me something different about how people choose to live.

But the thing I'm actually taking back home with me is a concept I had no word for before this trip: dolce far niente. The sweetness of doing nothing. Not laziness. Not wasting time. Just being present without needing to optimize every moment. That quietly changed something in me.

The friendships this program built are the other thing I didn't see coming. When you're navigating foreign cities together, missing trains, finding hole-in-the-wall restaurants at midnight, you bond with people on a different level entirely.

If you're debating whether to go: stop debating.