Hayden Zeleney spent this past Spring of 2025 at the University of Sussex. She felt inspired to take a semester abroad after participating in one of the Global Experience Seminars: “I went on the geo trip to Northern Ireland. And while I was there, I was just kind of like, wow, this is a fantastic opportunity for my education. And I just loved it so much that I wanted to do more traveling. I wanted to see more of Europe. Specifically, I wanted to go somewhere that’s a bit out of my comfort zone and learn in that hands-on way.”

The University of Sussex turned out to be the ideal place for that due to the differences in its classroom structure: “It was a lot more lecture based, we didn’t have as many discussions and the class sizes were a lot bigger. The professors didn’t really introduce themselves. You didn’t get to know them on a good basis. They didn’t really get to know you. You were just kind of there, which is perfect for some people. It was very, very different for me. They didn’t do assignments or, like, check ins to see how you were doing. So you weren’t getting good feedback about what you didn’t understand, which meant that everything came down to the final.” Because of this, Hayden became skilled in managing her own time and taking charge of her learning.

The benefits of studying abroad at Sussex were the opportunities to take classes that would not be the same experience if they were taken in the U.S.: “I’m a political science student, and I was taking U.S. politics over there, and that was very interesting, because I got to learn how the U.S. political system is viewed from an outsider’s perspective, and especially the current things … It was interesting to see the different perspectives of how this country that I’ve lived in my entire life is viewed.”

Hayden also learned skills that are useful outside of the classroom: “I learned how to travel really well by myself. I learned how to book flights and budget hotels. I know, technically, that’s not education, per se, but it was a very good life skill that I learned. And I learned a lot of what to do in emergencies, because a few emergencies came up that were pretty hard that I dealt with on my own.” Skills like this are useful not just for Beloit life, but for life beyond college.

Hayden is glad that she went abroad, not only for the experiences within her University’s programs but for her experiences outside of it: “It was a really nice experience. I loved it. I got to see like, four different countries in the span of five months, which was fantastic, because I went from only being, like, only going to Canada and Mexico to, you know, I went to Northern Ireland, I went to Norway, I went to Paris, and I went to Vienna, all that stuff in the span of five months.”

Want to learn more about what study abroad could look like for you? Book an appointment with the Global Experience Office today!