SIT Study Abroad IHP: Climate Change: The Politics of Land, Water & Energy Justice

Participating in this program was the best decision I’ve made in my college experience. I’m studying Environmental Policy at Duke University, and I had wanted to study abroad since I learned about that option in high school.

IHP Climate Change is an incredible program. We studied some of the most pressing issues the world is facing right now, and heard from people directly affected by them. From guest speakers to site visits, we learned about the struggles and fights of people all around the world, directly from them. We learned the importance of lifting up those voices who are usually suppressed, with readings, discussions, and actually hearing those voices. In many cases we heard both sides of controversial issues. Through class lectures, group discussions, and community building sessions, we became closer as a group and grew as young people in the fight against climate change.

This program really taught me perspective. The academics were really interesting, and I learned a lot about climate change, but the main focus was climate justice. We learned that everything is intersectional, and climate change is both a threat and a threat multiplier. This program truly changed the way I look at the issues facing our world today and how to solve them. The program requires a lot from you in terms of actual scheduled programming, but it was the right format to get the most out of the experience.

We had a lot of time to learn about the countries we were in, spend time with our homestay families, travel, and get to know each other as a group. We really became close as a group, and I now have a whole new set of friends. I learned more from this semester than any other semester of college. It’s a great balance of fun, analyzing, learning, and growth. I miss it a lot, and I’m super grateful that I had the experience to do something like this.

This program is an INCREDIBLE opportunity to study climate justice with people at the frontlines of the climate crisis. I think this program is essential to understanding environmental justice outside of the US. It not only explores the local forces that lead to environmental inequality but also the larger global forces I think many traditional programs glaze over. This program has heavily influenced my future career and activism interests. SIT/IHP does such a thorough job taking care of its students. I couldn't have asked for a better program.

I really enjoyed going on this program. It is, however, very different from the standard study abroad program at a foreign university, and prospective students should be aware of this. For example, I didn't find the courses to be particularly academically rigorous because there were relatively few assignments. Instead, the experience was mainly bulked out by site visits and a focus on experiential learning, which I felt definitely worked to its benefit in creating a different experience every semester and for every student. In order to ensure that get as much out of these experiences as possible though, there are mandatory programmed events for debriefing and synthesizing them. Students thus should be prepared to deeply discuss events and their reactions to events that are both scheduled and unexpected. There can also be uncertainty in the program scheduling due to its release on guest lecturers and site visits, and the program itself is densely packed and will probably feel restrictive if what you want out of your study abroad experience if absolute freedom to explore.

This program also invokes a lot of in-group bounding. Since the student group is pretty small (mine was 22 people) and, due to the active nature of the program, pretty isolated, relationships within the group are very important but can also feel stifling at times. A key relationship you will probably develop will be with your homestay families: homestays really help to ground you in each host country on this program. I also got pretty close with the administrators in each country, who were all incredibly talented, knowledgeable, and accessible. As a whole, this program is pretty safe. However, there were incidents of people being followed and phone theft. The administration will give formal safety orientations in each country — definitely pay attention to those and follow the buddy policy — but the country coordinators and their assistants will also offer informal advice and support that is invaluable.

For some more technical details, SIT gives a food and transportation stipend in each country. Depending on the country, it may or may not actually be enough: Morocco was more difficult food budgeting-wise, but the San Francisco and Vietnam stipends were especially generous. I personally enjoyed all the food and had no problems, but I know that vegetarians on the program had some difficulties staying vegetarian both in homestays and while eating out, and many people went through adjustment periods to new diets. I was also lucky enough to not experience any health issues during the program, but other people did and the administration was very prompt and helpful in responding to the problem. My experiences with my host families were all positive and all the hotels were quite nice, but there were issues with wifi accessibility in certain hotels, which could get really annoying. And because there's not only movement between countries but also a lot of movement within countries, there is a lot of time spent driving and traveling in general, which can get exhausting.

IHP Climate Change was incredible to experience and eye-opening to synthesize. So much happens on this program, and the explicit focus on interconnectivity and intersectionality helped to integrate every event into the learning. But the definite highlight for me was the people: from homestay families to guest lecturers to administrators to the other students, I met so many intelligent, thoughtful people that I am so grateful to have gotten the chance to meet. What this program offers is a very specific experience to allow you to learn from a vast variety of people and places, to show you how to learn both globally and locally, and to analyze the world around you and your place in it. I can't recommend it enough.

The program exceeded my expectations almost across the board. The emphasis on environmental justice was not something I was aware would be central but was so grateful it was. The staff/program directors, country coordinators and traveling support were all so incredibly inspiring, and committed to listening to students, supporting them and creating the best all-around experience possible.
It had:
Opportunities - connections to speakers, local knowledge about sites, complementary readings that I would not be able to compile learning/traveling on my own

Traveling - I loved that I got an introduction to visiting three incredibly different countries

Freedom - heavy/intense programming at times but appropriate respect and deference to student freedom