Preparing for a Successful Return To My Home Institution

Sitting on the plane to London (more on that in a moment), I am so sad that my study abroad program has come to an end. These three and a half months have deeply impacted my life in the present moment and for many years to come. But I knew this date was lingering in the near future as I began to put together everything to return back to my home institution, Mount Holyoke College, this fall.

I am a rising senior, expected to graduate in May 2026, which feels surreal to say because it feels like just yesterday I was a high schooler picking where I wanted to go for my undergraduate degree. Being a rising senior there were a lot of things I had to coordinate this spring to set me up for a successful senior year and transition back to Mount Holyoke.

This preparation began in the fall semester as I met with my major advisors, one of my major advisors is going to be on sabbatical for the 2025-2026 academic year, so I wanted to make sure to talk to him in person and plan out my courses and talk about postgraduate plans as I was unsure how accessible he would be during his sabbatical year. Talking with him in the fall also helped me to make sure I was on the right track for my study abroad program and for the summer immediately following. 

In fall 2024 I also began to prepare for a Senior Thesis project, a year-long independent study that produces a substantial sized paper at the end of it. As part of the Senior Thesis project in the history department at my school, there is a grant available (and highly encouraged to apply for) to help subsidize travel for archival research. During my time abroad, I met with my thesis advisor a few times over Zoom (not ideal, but worked for what we needed) and applied for the Pugh Grant funding (and received it!). This enabled my post-program travel to London (where I am wrapping up this blog post) to do research here for a few days and then head back to America. 

I also had to secure housing (I live in a dorm all four years, so for those that live off-campus this might look different) and coordinate with my friends where we wanted to live. I had to ensure that everything was organized for me to have the best room possible this fall while also being in a time zone that was six hours ahead.

Constructing my senior year schedule was a big event this spring as I have a few major requirements left and I have decided to keep taking German courses this fall!  I had to also budget my senior thesis project in. My college is apart of a consortium with four others (UMass Amherst, Amherst College, Smith College, and Hampshire College), and one of my major requirements I am going to be taking at Amherst College this fall which required some extra coordination on my end to get registered and approved for.

Through this past semester and my experiences as a Musikarchiv intern at the Wiener Staatsoper, I learned that I am interested in becoming a music archivist/librarian which also impacted what courses I am interested in taking this fall to help further explore my interests and prepare me to go to graduate school. 

A lot of people think that studying abroad will set you back from your studies at your home institution, and I think that is often a wrong/bad outlook! I only decided I was interested in studying abroad my sophomore spring and applied to request for my home institution to allow me to go abroad that semester. I am still able to get in all my major requirements (for both of my majors, including the one I added sophomore spring) and complete my career-track minor. Being abroad helped me to further expand my horizons and learn more about myself and others while getting a unique experience that would not happen at my home institution. I really enjoyed my time abroad in Vienna and while I am so excited to return to Mount Holyoke this fall and begin my senior year with my last Convocation & being decked out in red (my class color), I am so sad to be leaving behind Vienna.

Studying abroad was not something that I thought I would ever do and I am forever grateful that I jumped on this opportunity, especially to go to Vienna, last spring. I truly cannot speak of my time abroad highly enough, I think the only way to understand what I mean is to experience yourself.

And as Billy Joel once said, Vienna waits for you…