Welcome to the official student blog for the 2015 Spring Session in Ukraine Program! As a part of a class assignment for the course ANTH 233 Anthropological Perspectives on Contemporary Ukraine, we worked to get this blog out.
What is the Spring Session in Ukraine (SSU) Program?
The Spring Session in Ukraine is conceived as an intensive language and culture immersion program coordinated jointly by St. Thomas More College (STM) and the University of Saskatchewan (U of S). The program is offered overseas in Ternopil, Ukraine in co-operation with a partner institution, Ternopil National Pedagogical University.
Simply put, the SSU is a study abroad program offered through the university by its amazing partners, STM and the Prairie Centre for the Study of Ukrainian Heritage (PCUH). This program differs from most programs in a lot of positive ways:
- First, this is a 5 week program and you obtain 9 credits: a full class load! This can easily help speed up your convocation or help you take lighter class loads.
- Second, you are surrounded in an absolutely immersive atmosphere, which is undisputedly the best way to acquire a language.
- You get to live in Ternopil, Ukraine: one of the most welcoming cities we have ever had the privilege of traveling to. The city feels like a small town in terms of its comfort and friendliness. It is easily one of the most proud cities in Ukraine, and anyone would be happy to speak Ukrainian with you!
- Finally, you stay with a host family who cooks traditional Ukrainian meals every single day you are there. You immediately feel like a part of the family and your language skills will be so much better from it!
For more information, such as classes, cost breakdowns and more, please visit the Official Spring Session in Ukraine Page.
The Purpose of Our Blog
As participants in SSU 2015, we assert that this is program was an incredible opportunity for both academic and personal reasons. This blog illustrates both sides as to why we wholeheartedly recommend this program to any prospective students.
What you see in this blog are the excerpts from our class assignments, “Reflections on learning” that we wrote for the course ANTH 233 “Anthropological Perspectives on Contemporary Ukraine”. The blog has also become our group course project for the same class. Here we cover various aspects of our trip and examine Ukrainian culture through a critical lense.
For more informal information about the trip, we created extra posts exclusively for this blog that will address questions such as “Is it even safe to go there?” [spoiler: yes!] or “Am I going to be stuck in class the whole time?” [spoiler: definitely not!], which you can also access at the toolbar or by following this link.
SPRING SESSION IN UKRAINE 