For Elise Miller, Yuba College was the first step in achieving her educational goals. The current step involves going to graduate school in Iceland.
At the end of high school, Elise was not sure what major or career she hoped to pursue. So she chose to attend Yuba College to earn her general education credits while she decided what major fit her best.
During her time at Yuba College, she took a wide array of classes to see what majors interested her. “I took a bunch of Humanities classes and even a creative writing class,” she told me.
Eventually, she decided that the major that suited her best was Linguistics. “I found that I enjoyed history and English, basically realizing that I like language. And I hate math and science so it was the perfect fit.”
When it was time to transfer to a four-year university, the available resources at Yuba College helped Elise greatly in the process. She eventually decided on UC Davis, after successfully meeting with the UC Davis representative that visits Yuba College monthly.
“The lady from UC Davis made it so easy for me to transfer,” she told me. For Elise, going to community college not only helped her to save some money, but it also helped her make the next step in her education easier.
When her final year of undergrad at Davis began last Fall, Elise decided to attend graduate school. However, the cost of graduate school here in the states led Elise to apply to graduate schools in Europe.
Elise is no stranger to Europe, as she lived in the Netherlands for a year in high school as an exchange student, so she applied to a school in that country, and a few other European schools.
Elise found that the University of Iceland suited her needs, and the free tuition was a big incentive to apply.
She received her acceptance letter last month, and has already begun preparing for the big move. “I’ll be leaving on August 19, and heading to Reykjavik, Iceland where the university is located.”
The graduate program will last two years, just the same as an American graduate program. Elise’s major will be Medieval Icelandic studies.
She has begun researching Iceland, and has already made a list of places and things to see. One such activity is seeing the famous Northern Lights, one of Iceland’s most popular tourist attractions.
She also hopes to learn the Icelandic language, and immerse herself in the culture while there.
Elise summed up her excitement about going to Iceland by saying, “I plan to take full advantage of living abroad in Iceland for the two years that I’ll be there. I’m really looking forward to this new challenge.”
NOTE: This article was featured in the Summer 2016 edition of The Prospector.
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