Class Year: 2024
Program: IFSA Butler University of Wollongong, Australia
Email: sancth01@gettysburg.edu
Hometown: Bronx, NY
Major/Minor: Biology
Campus Activities: I currently work at the Gender and Sexuality Resource Center located in the first floor of Apple which allows me to interact with and listen to students that I may not have met through another activity. I also am a Multicultural Ambassador for Admissions in which I present my experiences here at Gettysburg to prospective students especially students of color. I also attend LASA and BSU meetings.
Favorite Experience: My favorite experience in Australia was hiking the Blue Mountains. The hike was also mediated by an Aboriginal Australian man where he shared his family history and the history of Aboriginals in the Blue Mountains. It was one of the most beautiful experiences in my entire life because he was hilarious and he understood the connotations many people have about Australia and he tried to show us why these connotations are wrong. The hike was on a beautiful warm day and it wasn't intense, definitely beginner friendly!
New/Exciting Course Abroad: Every course I took in Australia had something new and exciting to learn about! For instance, the biology of energy and metabolism course taught me so much about health such as how our food provides nutrients and how its converted into energy and it also taught me a lot about why certain foods are unhealthy. My biology of flowering plants course taught me so much about the evolution of plants and it gave me a profound sense of appreciation for plants. Lastly, I took a course on the history of Aboriginal people of Australia and on the Emerging Disease Prevention. I could talk for hours about everything I learned and how its changed me :) but in summary, all the course I took were exciting!