IHP Climate Change: An Extraordinary, Engaging Experience

I really enjoyed going on this program. It is, however, very different from the standard study abroad program at a foreign university, and prospective students should be aware of this. For example, I didn't find the courses to be particularly academically rigorous because there were relatively few assignments. Instead, the experience was mainly bulked out by site visits and a focus on experiential learning, which I felt definitely worked to its benefit in creating a different experience every semester and for every student. In order to ensure that get as much out of these experiences as possible though, there are mandatory programmed events for debriefing and synthesizing them. Students thus should be prepared to deeply discuss events and their reactions to events that are both scheduled and unexpected. There can also be uncertainty in the program scheduling due to its release on guest lecturers and site visits, and the program itself is densely packed and will probably feel restrictive if what you want out of your study abroad experience if absolute freedom to explore.

This program also invokes a lot of in-group bounding. Since the student group is pretty small (mine was 22 people) and, due to the active nature of the program, pretty isolated, relationships within the group are very important but can also feel stifling at times. A key relationship you will probably develop will be with your homestay families: homestays really help to ground you in each host country on this program. I also got pretty close with the administrators in each country, who were all incredibly talented, knowledgeable, and accessible. As a whole, this program is pretty safe. However, there were incidents of people being followed and phone theft. The administration will give formal safety orientations in each country — definitely pay attention to those and follow the buddy policy — but the country coordinators and their assistants will also offer informal advice and support that is invaluable.

For some more technical details, SIT gives a food and transportation stipend in each country. Depending on the country, it may or may not actually be enough: Morocco was more difficult food budgeting-wise, but the San Francisco and Vietnam stipends were especially generous. I personally enjoyed all the food and had no problems, but I know that vegetarians on the program had some difficulties staying vegetarian both in homestays and while eating out, and many people went through adjustment periods to new diets. I was also lucky enough to not experience any health issues during the program, but other people did and the administration was very prompt and helpful in responding to the problem. My experiences with my host families were all positive and all the hotels were quite nice, but there were issues with wifi accessibility in certain hotels, which could get really annoying. And because there's not only movement between countries but also a lot of movement within countries, there is a lot of time spent driving and traveling in general, which can get exhausting.

IHP Climate Change was incredible to experience and eye-opening to synthesize. So much happens on this program, and the explicit focus on interconnectivity and intersectionality helped to integrate every event into the learning. But the definite highlight for me was the people: from homestay families to guest lecturers to administrators to the other students, I met so many intelligent, thoughtful people that I am so grateful to have gotten the chance to meet. What this program offers is a very specific experience to allow you to learn from a vast variety of people and places, to show you how to learn both globally and locally, and to analyze the world around you and your place in it. I can't recommend it enough.