Ryan Murphy ’24, staff writer

LVC students took a trip to Maastricht University in the Netherlands.

LVC’s short-term study abroad program took a trip to the Netherlands this summer. The Netherlands is conveniently located, sitting between England, France, Belgium and Germany, making travel throughout Europe easily accessible. Students were hosted by and attended Maastricht University (UM), which lies at the southernmost tip of the Netherlands, close to both the Belgian and German borders.

While the students were at Maastricht University, they took two courses during the week: the choice of either a criminal justice or business course taught by an LVC faculty member, along with a mandatory intercultural communications course taught by UM faculty.

When not in class during the week and on the weekends, students were able to explore Maastricht, but also left the city and even the country on the weekends.

“Our schedule was a perfect balance between class and free time,” Meredith Haas, a senior English and political science double major, said. “We typically only had class four days a week, which let us have long weekends to travel outside of Maastricht, but also free time to do things within Maastricht because our classes finished early in the afternoon.”

Not only were the students able to travel independently, but they also had trips incorporated within the class, to further learn and explore Europe.

“I really enjoyed traveling to Brussels,” Michael Williams, a senior political science major, said “We were able to check out the European Union Parliament, which was really cool because that is something I am interested in as a career when I am out of college.”

For more information on studying abroad to the Netherlands and other programs, visit LVC’s website under Study Abroad.