Incredible Semester of Immersion and Learning

This program was the highlight of my college experience!
The semester began with a week-long orientation that allowed me to get to know the other students, understand some basics about Argentinian culture, and get aquatinted with Ushuaia. The SIT staff was incredible throughout this period, planning a variety of activities that helped us all adjust to our new surroundings.
After that first week, we met our homestay families. My homestay was with a single woman who was very welcoming. She eagerly introduced me to her family and was always excited to bring me along for a drive around the city. She practiced my Spanish with me every night over dinner and helped me improve significantly.
I loved the city of Ushuaia, its relatively small size made it easy to navigate on foot and on public transportation. I never felt unsafe walking around the city alone. It’s location between the water and the mountains was not only beautiful, but allowed for some incredible hiking on the weekends. The city also held parades and other events on holidays that were exciting to experience.
I enjoyed the academics in this program. Each class was taught by a different local expert and assignments were created and graded by the SIT staff. This format allowed us to learn about a wide variety of local environmental, social, and research topics ranging from the unique ecosystems of Tierra del Fuego, the history of indigenous groups and the politics of Antarctic exploration. The classes could feel very separated from each other, but the assignments allowed us to fit them together. We also had several class sessions focusing on research and data analysis which culminated in a final group project. The Spanish classes were held at a local language school. While my group had some issues with our teacher, I enjoyed the culminating project where we made a podcast as a class.
These classes were complemented by several excursions that allowed us to explore other parts of Tierra del Fuego while getting a different view of the topics we were learning about. We also had a 10 day excursion to Antarctica which was truly a once-in-a-lifetime experience and complemented our learning about climate change, Antarctic exploration, and Antarctic politics very well.
After the classes and the Antarctica expedition, we completed month-long research projects. These allowed me and my peers to get hands-on experience in a topic that interested us, which I felt was incredibly valuable.
This was an amazing program and I highly recommend it. I learned a lot and really enjoyed my SIT group (I’m still in contact with several of them). To anyone who is interested in environmental science, Antarctica, the outdoors, and Spanish, this is the program for you!