• Mary S. •
• Danish Institute for Study Abroad (DIS) Program •
• Marketing Major

Mary is a marketing major and leadership minor who studied for a semester with the Danish Institute for Study Abroad (DIS) program in Copenhagen. While she was there, she enjoyed taking challenging classes, learning about Danish culture, and living independently in the capital of the country.

Mary chose the DIS program because the courses would fit with her major requirements at the University of Minnesota. She found the course work to be demanding, with a strong emphasis on written assignments, which she saw as a nice balance to her previous courses at the U of M. "We had to do a project in which my group had to market Copenhagen as a city to the US market, and we had to do a whole marketing strategy. It was really applicable to my major." She also found that she re-evaluated her own ideas about scholarship, focusing more on the importance of what she was learning in her courses, instead of on grades. Overall, she felt that she gained a lot from the program in terms of academics.

Currently, Mary is applying for an internship opportunity with DIS. She thinks that her time in Denmark helped her understand what kinds of marketing careers she would be interested in, by allowing her to study with professors who work in the field. She also noticed a different attitude towards work in Denmark, and appreciated the emphasis on balancing time with family and time at work. She hopes to apply this understanding in her life in the future.

One of the features that drew Mary to DIS besides the course work was the inclusion of study tours during the program. These were short trips that the students took in which they learned about aspects of other cities and geographical areas. They then had to write papers on the current situation in these areas, based on their experience. During her semester, Mary participated on two study tours: one to western Denmark, and one to Frankfurt, Brussels, and Luxembourg. On the tours, the group visited local businesses, and learned about the political situation regarding entry into the European Union. Mary thought that the study tours were a great opportunity for her to not only see other parts of the region and spend time with her peers, but also to apply her travels to her learning.