Studying Abroad as a STEM Student

I knew I wanted to study abroad by going into college so as soon as I got to Ithaca College, I started going to the study abroad events to get more information. I’m a Biochemistry major, and one of the most common things I came across was advisors telling me it would be difficult for me to study abroad as a STEM student. I didn’t let that deter me though, especially since what I was interested in doing was taking some STEM classes abroad to get a more diverse perspective of what I was studying.

Originally, I planned to do my semester in Sorrento, Italy, which offers several really cool marine biology and vulcanology classes. I was planning for that up until a family vacation in Scotland. I just fell completely in love with Edinburgh and knew I needed to come back. CIS Abroad offers two locations in Scotland, Edinburgh, and Stirling. I eventually settled on Stirling due to a couple of factors, primarily, it being more residential than Edinburgh while still being centralized, and the STEM classes they offered.

I picked 3 classes:

1. Biodiversity Conservation and Management

2. Science of Diving

3. Safer Spaces in 20th Century Britain

The University of Stirling also offers a number of core STEM classes open to international students, some being Microbiology, Scripting, Data Science, and Calculus classes just to name a few. Their sustainability and natural science courses are the highlight though.

Biodiversity Conservation and Management focused on the maintenance and work that goes into maintaining species health. It was a lecture-based course with many students. However, that wasn’t a detriment here. For one course assignment we were assigned to make a short 8-minute documentary on a specific prompt. We were given groups and a list of prompts to pick from. My group did the conservation of the Iberian Lynx. It was incredibly cool to have an assignment that not only covered the course material but also forced us to work outside of a normal assignment format. We had to write a script, film ourselves reading the information in an engaging way, and edit the video, adding graphics and clips of the animal where they fit best. In all, it was extremely satisfying to finish, and it was so much fun to make.

Science of Diving was an incredibly cool class that focused on learning how to plan a SCUBA dive for the purpose of data collection. We had practical classes where we visited the equipment shed to learn what equipment was is used on scientific dives. We also had lecture classes and assignments that taught us to read tide and decompression charts. The final assignment was to plan out a scientific dive to record sea urchins. We had to list out the equipment and put together all the knowledge we’d gained over the semester.

My favorite class was Safer Spaces in 20th Century Britain. I thought this class would be a lower-level elective, but it turned out to be a high-level deep dive into the last 150 years or so of environmental policy in the UK. Since it was a high level course, the class size was exceedingly small, and I ended up being the only international student. I was nervous at first because I thought I may have flown just a bit too close to the sun, but it ended up being one of the richest experiences I had while abroad.

Everyone in the class was welcoming and the professor was excited to have an international student’s perspective on the policies we were reviewing. One of the best things we did in that class was go on a field trip to an old colliery. We talked a lot in class about the coal mining industry that thrived in the UK but the field trip to one of the old mines really brought everything together.

Plus, I made friends with the people in the class, and we decided to stop for dinner afterwards, which is one of my favorite memories. During the field trip, we found an old lump of coal that the class decided I should keep remembering them by. In all, the STEM classes I took at Stirling gave me such a unique experience to the classes I’ve taken in the U.S. in such a positive way. The perspective and experiences I had abroad really helped me pinpoint what I want from my education as a citizen of the world.

If you're interested in exploring more of Scotland, check out all of CIS Abroad's available programs here!

Blog by Caitlyn O'Dell, Ithaca College