{"id":5951,"date":"2020-04-06T12:53:19","date_gmt":"2020-04-06T12:53:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wordpress.lvc.edu\/wordpress\/lavie\/?p=5951"},"modified":"2020-04-06T12:53:19","modified_gmt":"2020-04-06T12:53:19","slug":"from-dutch-to-dutchman-willy-van-den-berg","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wordpress.lvc.edu\/lavie\/2020\/04\/06\/from-dutch-to-dutchman-willy-van-den-berg\/","title":{"rendered":"From Dutch to Dutchman: Willy van den Berg"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

By\nMegan Finlan \u201921, staff writer<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite\nhaving her study abroad experience cut short, Willemijn (Willy) van den Berg\nwouldn\u2019t trade her time at LVC for the world. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

van den\nBerg grew up in Zwolle, a relatively large city in the east of the Netherlands,\nwhere she attended Gymnasium Celeanum. While working through her last year of\nhigh school she wasn\u2019t sure what her next steps would be after graduation. van\nden Berg\u2019s sisters, Josefien and Carlyn, studied abroad in the United States at\nWittenberg University in Springfield, Ohio, and after seeing their great\nexperiences abroad, she knew that she wanted to study abroad in the United\nStates too. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy\nyear at LVC was unforgettable,\u201d van den Berg said. \u201cThe community and people\nwere so nice and inviting.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\neducation system in the Netherlands is different than in the United States, van\nden Berg explained. In the Netherlands, students apply for a major and once\naccepted, it\u2019s difficult to change it. Students who decide to switch majors\nmust drop out of their current major and reapply in the new major for the next\nyear. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

van den\nBerg had the opportunity to explore a variety of majors during her time at LVC\nto find her interests before returning to the Netherlands to continue her\nstudies. She took advantage of this opportunity and participated in classes in English,\nart, digital communications, sociology and even athletic training. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\nwas really trying to experiment with different fields and discover what I\nenjoyed doing,\u201d van den Berg said. \u201cWhat really amazed me about the classes was\nhow involved the professors were. I swear that within two classes, they knew my\nname.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

While\nexploring classes and a new culture, van den Berg immediately got involved in\nlife on campus as a member of the field hockey team. She appeared in 16 games\nfor the Dutchmen as a defender and was named a Collegiate Scholar of\nDistinction by the National Field Hockey Coaches Association and Zag Field\nHockey for maintaining a cumulative GPA greater than 3.90 through the end of\nher first semester. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\nam so glad I received the opportunity to be a member of the team in the fall,\u201d\nvan den Berg said. \u201cIt was such a great experience to be part of a varsity\nteam, and all of the girls made it unforgettable.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some\nof her favorite memories from her time at LVC were dancing in the homecoming\npep rally with the field hockey team, experiencing her first Thanksgiving,\nvisiting Philadelphia and Pittsburgh and watching the Bachelor with friends\nevery Monday night. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy\nbiggest struggle at LVC was saying goodbye,\u201d van den Berg said. \u201cI had so many\nfun activities planned in those last two months, and the semester being cut\nshort was devastating. I definitely gained a second family.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now,\nback in the Netherlands, van den Berg hopes to attend the Technical University\nof Delft for product design. While she doesn\u2019t have a clear idea of what her\nfuture holds, she definitely plans to visit LVC again. <\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Megan Finlan \u201921, staff writer Despite having her study abroad experience cut short, Willemijn (Willy) van den Berg wouldn\u2019t trade her time at LVC for the world. van den Berg grew up in Zwolle, […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":5952,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-5951","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-campus-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.lvc.edu\/lavie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5951","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.lvc.edu\/lavie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.lvc.edu\/lavie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.lvc.edu\/lavie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.lvc.edu\/lavie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5951"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.lvc.edu\/lavie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5951\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.lvc.edu\/lavie\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.lvc.edu\/lavie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5951"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.lvc.edu\/lavie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5951"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.lvc.edu\/lavie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5951"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}