Winter globetrotting
Photos courtesy of Beth Morling and Nithila Chrisostam January 02, 2025
More than 1,000 Blue Hens prepare to depart for 50+ faculty-led study abroad programs
Fourteen University of Delaware students will begin conducting research and learning basic Japanese language — while enjoying the best ramen of their life — starting next week on the cultural psychology study abroad program in Japan. More than 1,000 other students will begin studying topics from conservation in Costa Rica to art and social change in Tanzania as part of 54 study abroad programs that will begin in the coming days for the 2025 Winter Session.
Junior honors student Nithila Chrisostam, who is a World Scholar and double majoring in psychology and sociology and double minoring in anthropology and history, is one of the students departing for the three-week psychology micro program in Kyoto, Japan, on Tuesday, Jan. 7.
“I’m very excited to get experience in creating my own research questions and hypotheses and collecting data in Japan, an incredibly important region of the world in the field of cultural psychology,” Chrisostam said. “Our group will get to travel around western Japan to visit Hiroshima, Kobe, Osaka, Nara and other small cities and towns and test hypotheses about cultural practices.”
This Winter Session study abroad program was designed for students interested in cultural psychology research and daily life in Japan, and will be led by Beth Morling, director of undergraduate education and a professor in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences. In addition to studying how “culture and psyche make each other up,” students will visit local temples and shrines, explore a bamboo forest, visit the Peace Park and Museum in Hiroshima, learn with students from Kyoto University, take a food tour in Osaka, and take calligraphy and Bento cooking classes.
Students will create their own mini research projects, including figuring out how to test their hypotheses through field observations and methods they create themselves. At the end of the program they will present their findings in a mini symposium.
As a third-year World Scholar, Chrisostam is fulfilling a program requirement to work or conduct research abroad. No stranger to global travel and education, she spent her first semester as a UD student in Auckland, New Zealand, and also conducted independent research through the Summer Scholars program in Tamilnadu, India, last summer. Still, this part of the world is new to her, and this research is more in line with her post-graduate aspirations.
“I'm hoping to apply to graduate school, so this is great experience to have before I even start applying,” Chrisostam said. “Dr. Morling has helped me start thinking about my post-grad goals, since I'm hoping to enter the social/cultural psychology field. She's helped me to start thinking about potentially continuing the research we'll be doing in Japan back home, and also has helped out with looking into programs in and around the U.S. that are good for the field I want to go into.”
In addition to the personal support she received, Chrisostam appreciated the efforts that her faculty director made to help her and her classmates feel well-prepared for this Winter Session program.
“Dr. Morling held multiple orientation sessions during the fall semester to prepare us for this experience. She gave us a good understanding of what to expect navigating life in Japan. Her knowledge of the region and its culture, due to doing a Fulbright in Japan and living there for a period of time, has been very helpful,” Chrisostam said. “She also provided the opportunity to meet the other students we’d be traveling with. We’re already comfortable with each other before we’ve even left the U.S.”
Winter Sessions are fast-paced and pack a lot of academic content and cultural excursions into a few short weeks, said Matt Drexler, director of study abroad. Micro programs last two to three weeks, while regular programs can take up the full five weeks of this short UD term.
“This year we worked with faculty and departments from all eight colleges to develop and plan 54 unique and dynamic Winter Session study abroad programs that 1,032 students will participate in,” Drexler said. “We’re back to pre-pandemic numbers and have an amazing slate of opportunities available for Blue Hens. We’re incredibly grateful for the effort of the hard-working and innovative faculty directors who lead these multifaceted global education programs.”
The psychology program is not the only one that will include travel to multiple cities. There’s a linguistics and cognitive sciences program that will tour southern and central Italy, an Africana studies program that will visit cities and a game reserve in South Africa and a business law program that will visit courts, parliament and businesses in major cities in Australia. Programs that include globetrotting across multiple countries include sports medicine in Germany and Switzerland and sport tourism in England and France.
Check out @UDGlobal on Instagram and the #UDAbroad hashtag to follow the journeys of Blue Hens this Winter Session. Also visit the UD Abroad Blog for student perspectives on the study abroad experience.
About the Center for Global Programs and Studies
The Center for Global Programs and Services (CGPS) at the University of Delaware is home to the operations of UD Global, which includes Study Abroad, International Student and Scholar Services, World Scholars Program and Global Outreach and Partnerships. The Center provides leadership and collaborative innovation in support of all of the University's global initiatives and campus internationalization efforts, with its Global 360 Strategy serving as a roadmap for infusing international perspectives throughout the University’s scholarship, research, and service missions. Focused on a student-centered approach, CGPS provides expert advising and a wealth of global engagement opportunities to the UD campus community, including the weekly International Coffee Hour in the fall and spring semesters.
Follow and engage with @UDGlobal on Instagram and LinkedIn for the latest updates on everything global happening at UD.
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