Who Am I Abroad (WHOA) is a student series of videos and articles exploring the shifts in perception of the self while abroad or away. The purpose of these stories is to highlight the global experiences of students in relation to their salient identities
If you are an interested student and would like to be connected with a study abroad alumni who has participated in your program or country of interest and shares your identity, please submit the Connect with Alumni Request Form, and we’ll follow up with you by email.
If you are a study abroad alumni and are interested in participating in the WHOA series, please fill out an interest form.
Michael, a second-year transfer student with a passion for Sociology and Philosophy talks about studying and interning abroad in Buenos Aires, Argentina, through the Latin American and Latino Studies (LALS) Global Internship Program as a a first-generation student of color.
Daniel, an anthropology with a minor in philosophy major, talks about studying abroad in Spain and Morocco during the summer of 2022 as a first-gen, non-traditional, and EOP student.
Emilie, an environmental sciences major, talks about studying abroad in France during the summer and fall of 2022 as a Renaissance scholar and EOP student.
Sammy, a double politics and philosophy major, talks about traveling to Scotland with UCEAP and to Washington, DC as a bisexual woman.
Anya, a psychology major, talks about studying abroad in Madrid, Spain as a queer, low-income student who took part in UCEAP’s Complutense University of Madrid program.
Lucius, a global economics major and recipient of the Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship, talks about studying abroad in Berlin, Germany through UCEAP’s Berlin Summer program.
Janan, a nontraditional, 2022 UC Santa Cruz, Film and Digital Media graduate, studied Film History and Restoration in Bologna, Italy during the summer of 2022.
Eliza, a second-year Critical Race and Ethnic Studies (CRES) major with a minor in Education, studied abroad in Ireland as a Black and Queer person.
Alcides, a recently graduated transfer student, originally from El Salvador, double majoring in Global Environmental Justice and Latin American Latino Studies studied abroad on the Agroecology Practicum global seminar in Guatemala.
Esteban, a Human Biology major, studied abroad in Florence, Italy as a first-generation, LatinX, low-income, EOP student.
Colby, a Philosophy major, studied abroad on an Independent Program through CIEE in Copenhagen, Denmark and on Semester at Sea.
Maya, a politics and legal studies double major, discusses studying abroad in Ireland as a POC and first-generation university student.
Lauren, a recently graduated psychology major who spent a summer quarter in Sorrento, Italy on a UCSC Global Seminar discusses studying abroad as a first-generation college student.
Jaydah, a Linguistics major, discusses studying abroad in Seoul, South Korea as a low-income, African-American student.
Fiona, a double major in Politics and Applied Linguistics and Multilingualism, discusses studying abroad in France as a 1.5 generation Korean-American immigrant.
Shannon, an Applied Linguistics and Multilingualism major with a minor in Linguistics and a teaching certificate in TESOL, discusses studying abroad in Bordeaux, France as a Queer Swedish-American student.
Griselda, a psychology major, discusses studying in South Korea as a Latinx first-generation student from a low-income household.
Celia, a Business Management Economics major, discusses studying in France as an American with Korean features raised in a French family.
Chailen, a CRES major with a Black Studies minor, discusses studying abroad in Ghana as an ABC (African-American/Black/Caribbean) student from a low-income background.
Edwina MalmbergWHOA – Edwina Malmberg
Edwina, a Sociology major, discusses participating in the AFS Intercultural Exchange Program in Indonesia as a Panamanian female from a low-income background.
Sereena, a Film and Digital Media Studies major, discusses participating in a Virtual Global Internship as a transfer student from an immigrant household.
Samantha, a fourth-year Psychology and Education double major, discusses participation in the UCEAP Made in Italy program in Florence, Italy as an EOP student.
Meghan, a Biomolecular Engineering major, discusses participating in a UCSC Exchange Program at the Technical University of Denmark as a South Asian female.
Anahi, a psychology major with an education minor, discusses studying abroad in London as a Latinx, first-generation student.
Christina, a Cognitive Science major, discusses her experiences as an Asian-American while studying abroad in Rome, Italy.
Elisabet Garcia, an Anthropology major, discusses studying abroad as a first-generation college student from a low-income background and as a queer Latina.
Chelsey Boykin, a Psychology major, shares her experience understanding culture in new ways while studying abroad as a first-generation, ABC (African-American/Black/Caribbean) student in Barbados.
Alexander, a double major in sociology and politics, discusses studying abroad in Paris and London as a first-generation Filipino-American.
Lucia, a Sociology and Latin American and Latino Studies double major, shares her experience pushing aside doubt and fear in order to realize her dreams of studying abroad as a first-generation, low-income, LatinX student.
Ashley, a study abroad advisor, discusses studying abroad as a low-income, first-generation, transfer student of color in Mexico, Brazil, and Argentina.
Sakoya, a Film & Digital Media Studies and Ecology & Evolutionary Biology double major, discusses studying abroad as an EOP student in Costa Rica.
Marie, a Sociology and Feminist Studies Major, discusses studying abroad in Denmark at the University of Copenhagen.
Ayodele, an Environmental Studies major with a concentration in global environmental justice, discusses her experiences as an African-American Muslim woman studying abroad in Córdoba Spain.
Camille, a Feminist Studies and Legal Studies double major, discusses her experiences as a Chinese-American student studying abroad for three consecutive summers in Paris, Hong Kong, and London.