CYA - Study in Greece (Semester Program)

Studying abroad with CYA in Athens was one of the best decisions of my life! I had a transformative experience and credit my positive abroad time to the students, staff, and administration at CYA. Even though you are immersed in an entirely new country, CYA makes the process seamless through pre-departure meetings and in-depth assistance during our first weeks in Athens. My classes were engaging and thorough with many professors acting as tour guides and mentors throughout our time in Pangrati. The living situation made it feel like a home away from home with kind, compatible roommates who remain close friends of mine. I even had the opportunity to intern and work in Athens in my area of study. CYA brings out the best parts of Athens by highlighting phenomenal dining, interesting cultural events, and even travel options in and outside of Greece. I am so grateful to have chosen CYA and would recommend it to anyone interested in exploring Greece on a deeper level.

My time in Athens was perhaps one of the most memorable moments in my academic career. I am a history major, and for me, I spent my time learning through books and videos at my home institute. CYA though allowed me to get hands-on learning, take my knowledge, and applied it to the field. I got to live a short walk away from the Parthenon, get the chance to climb up the steps to Delphi that famous Greek legends walked upon, and work with human bronze age remains. If you're history.archaeology/classics major, CYA is the way to go. If you're not into the history stuff like me, CYA offers a rich assortment of experiences, cultural activities, and wide education that can be fitted to almost any major. But outside of education, you're living in one of the most beautiful and historic cities in the world. The people there are enthusiastic, the streets are filled with activity and a walk outside of your apartment always offers adventure. I left this program a changed person, and now all my days are filled with daydreaming about going back to the city of Athens, as I miss the professors, my friends, and the daily life there. Any study abroad can offer you excitement and a great experience, but CYA offers a life-changing experience you'll never forget.

Greece is a really unique and fun place to study abroad. Because of it's location in Southeast Europe, there's a lot of opportunities to travel to "less traditional" locations like Egypt, Israel, Hungary, and Turkey which I enjoyed. The academics were less rigorous than my courses at home, but I know Classics and more Advanced Greek courses had a higher workload. CYA also has 3 field study trips during the semester that are really fun! They serve as a good way to spend time with your friends and explore different parts of Greece while learning about professor's fields of study.

Although traveling from Los Angeles to Athens was a grueling experience (I flew into London/Heathrow and they delayed/cancelled multiple legs of my trip - wouldn't recommend stopping in London after Brexit), once I arrived, I fell in love with my program. The location (Pangrati neighborhood) was a perfect place to live - residential and local enough to feel immersive but within walking distance to some of the main more touristy parts of Athens (Syntagma, Monastiraki, Plaka). The classes were incredibly interesting - mine mainly focused on archeology and art history but there were a range of classes to take depending on your interests. I really enjoyed the emphasis on experiential learning - a lot of my classes were held at sites or museums throughout the greater Athens area (ARTH 366 was my favorite class because the majority of it was held at the Acropolis). All of the people I met and memories I made will stay with me for the rest of my life. I am so so happy I decided to study abroad with CYA! I couldn't recommend this program enough!!!

Being in Greece was definitely an Adjustment at first- not knowing the language, a new space, being far away from home. However I would encourage everything who goes abroad no matter the country to not see language as a barrier. When it comes to Greece my experience everywhere I went was that people were genuinely eager to get to know me and wanting to learn who I was- most people in Greece especially Athens do speak English. CYA was a great program in that my experience with administration was incredible, they were willing to help me when I needed and when I did get sick I felt like I could really get anything I needed from the pharmacy nearby (there are pharmacies everywhere). The classes I took and professors I connected with were great- I did learn a lot but I do know students who had some negative experiences with some professors and some members of administration. The food in the dining hall I would say was great, they were able to accommodate me when I started fasting for Easter- I just wish that we had more meals in the day besides lunch. The neighborhood you will be in very safe I think and pretty diverse and people are very friendly (local cafes know CYA students and welcome their arrival). I would say that Greece overall is very safe in terms of things like gun control etc, but I would say you have to be alert as a woman in a country no matter where you go. People are very forward and there is a culture of staring which can be taken in a negative light so it is important to be aware at all times.

My semester at CYA has been my best semester of college, an experience that I will never forget. This experience has provided me with such amazing opportunities and friendships that I will hold onto forever. Not only have I developed a newfound appreciation for Greece and Greek culture, but I have learned so much about my strengths as an individual as I navigated my way through new experiences. Not only did I grow as a person, but I gained more knowledge academically as I took new classes and met professors who deeply cared about me and my classmates’ success inside and outside the classroom.

I chose to study at CYA in the fall of my senior year of college and I'm so glad I did. I met a bunch of amazing people that I would have never met, and I feel like I really learned things about myself by going abroad that I wouldn't have known had I not (which sounds cliche but it is true.) Athens is a really great place to study if you plan to travel around Europe. There are lots of cheap flights from the airport and it's super easy to get there on the metro. I went to Milan and Istanbul while I was abroad, and also went to a bunch of Greek islands. CYA understands that people want to travel while abroad, and Jennifer and Angela from student affairs are super duper helpful and accommodating. I felt very safe and supported in everything, and they were there to make everything less stressful and answer any questions I had. I'd recommend CYA to anybody, but especially to archaeology students! This program is great for them because there are countless internship opportunities and volunteer opportunities that are super cool! I had many friends working at museums, theaters, social organizations and archaeology labs. It's a fantastic resume booster and you make some meaningful connections for later on.

People ask me to sum up my experience, and I am often speechless. This truly was an outright positive experience for me. The staff and the administration were so helpful sending out weekly emails with places we would be interested in going. Moreover, the preplanned trips were the PERFECT way to immerese us into Greek culture. This program really does put the student and the student's experience first, and I think this is th emain reason I have fallen in love with Greece. The staff made sure to acknowledge, the fantastic, the good, the bad, and the ugly as it concerns living in Greece with varying identities. It was utterly phenomenal.