Loved the Academic Director, loved the area, thought headquarters (VT) was disrespectful

Overall the program had an equal number of positives and negatives. Some positives include the freedom I got for each paper to write about a topic that I was interested in and comfortable with. The Academic Director was challenging but extremely helpful. In all honesty, professors can make or break a class, and I thought my Academic Director really made the course the success that it was. Another positive was my homestay. It was originally advertised as an 8-week homestay, but it turned out to only be 3 weeks. My family was wonderful and fun, and even though the three boys (all under the age of 8) did not speak English, we were able to communicate a little through games. There were some negatives as well. I was on the first semester of the program, and there were some logistical mistakes and some tweaking that still needed to be done. But I'm sure that as the program continues it will get better. Unfortunately, I didn't think my classmates were as flexible or understanding as they should have been, considering that this was the first semester. There were a lot of cliques in my program, and it was not very diverse. Unfortunately, SIT programs have a high rate of grade inflation. Meaning that no matter how poorly you did on a paper, the academic Director (who does all of the grading) is still expected to give you a better grade. Whether that appeals to you or not, I think it is dishonest. My AD, however, did not grade this way (and I know this because I almost never got the grade I wanted, I always got a worse one). He was honest and hard with his grading, which made me work even harder. Throughout the semester my grades improved significantly, and now I can look back on this program and say that this was where I learned how to write a scientific paper. The Academic Director is very bright and you can tell he is passionate about this program, even one month into the first semester. He challenges his students in multiple ways, whether he is testing your time management skills or writing skills. I feel that I can talk to him about anything, and I know I am biased because not everyone feels the same way. He doesn't act like an average professor who you only see for an hour or two in the day, like you would any other professor at a university. For the first three weeks, the Academic Director lived with us in the same hostel and was a part of our social lives outside of class. I got to know him as a person rather than just the professor. And I think if he continues to work for this trip in particular, he will make it a huge success for semesters to come.

We were always traveling, so it made it hard not to feel like a tourist (even in a town I spent 9 weeks in). Also, a part of this issue was due to the fact that I didn't speak Icelandic and I didn't want people to go out of their way to speak English.

I wish I knew how rude and disrespectful SIT headquarters has been towards me, my classmates, and the Academic Director. Throughout the whole program (even before and after) I felt like SIT headquarters didn't support me.