GEARE Students Abroad in 2022 - Part 1

As the world begins to return to some semblance of normalcy following the pandemic, we are thrilled to have our GEARE students abroad this semester all around the world. On a weekly basis throughout the semester, I will be sharing some of the experiences of the students abroad. The goal of these posts is to highlight the accomplishments and endeavors of our wonderful cohort of students abroad in 2022. In this week’s post, Annelise Nauman and Josh Keagle have shared some of their experiences being abroad.

Annelise is a Biological Engineering Major, currently studying at the University College Dublin in Ireland. When asked about her best experience abroad so far, she said “I have been able to take a very interesting variety of classes and experience a very different education system from Purdue's. My favorite experience so far has been visiting the Cliffs of Moher, which were absolutely stunning! I have also loved exploring Dublin, which is a beautiful city.”

The unique nature of the GEARE program is that it allows students to study abroad as well as work abroad, allowing students to gain valuable industry experience in addition to the traditional study abroad experience. This summer Annelise will be interning at Merck in the analytical research and development department for vaccine production. As for the rest of the semester, she plans “to continue traveling and trying to soak up as many international experiences as [she] can for the rest of the semester.”

Finally, one piece of advice that Annelise has for other students is that “it can be overwhelming to secure all the course equivalencies and permissions needed to study abroad, especially if you study somewhere that not many students in your major have gone, but it is absolutely worth all of the hard work! It is an absolutely incredible experience and you will not regret it at all.”

Josh is a Mechanical Engineering Major, currently working at the Institute of Product Engineering at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology in Germany. At KIT, he has been collaborating in research on battery cell connections, to engineer ways to increase battery performance and efficiency while also limiting power loss. His best experiences so far have been “traveling around and sightseeing in Germany!”

While Annelise is currently studying abroad and plans to intern in the summer, Josh is currently working and will continue to work with the research team until April. Then he will be taking classes at the university for their summer semester with his classes focused on automotive applications.

One piece of advice that Josh has for current students is to “be prepared for absolutely anything to happen while you are abroad. There are a lot of unknowns and experiences that will require plans to be changed, so just be ready to adapt/adjust to any situation and act on the fly if needed, and just make sure to keep a positive outlook!”

After the pandemic made global travel impossible in 2021, it is great to have GEARE students back studying and working around the world in 2022! I hope to continue to share student experiences like these throughout the rest of the semester, highlighting two new students every week.