Eric Mendes' Official Blog

In September 2009 I was still settling in from my first amazing trip abroad. I spent two and a half weeks backpacking through Europe (London, Paris, Nice, Athens..) and two weeks in Egypt (Aswan, Luxor, & Cairo) with UMass Boston and I couldn’t stop thinking about finding a way to get back to Europe. Funds were low, and I was starting my Junior year, so my time in college was also running thin. Then, like a sign from the Greek gods, a yellow paper detailing a brand new study abroad option landed in front of me during one of my Management Information Systems (MIS) classes at UMass Boston. The program’s name is the Transatlantic Dual Bachelor’s Degree Program or TraDIS.

Reading the trip’s details were like reading off the specs of that new dream phone you’ve been craving for:

• Three semesters away from Home Institution
• One Semester a piece in Germany, Finland, and either UMass Boston/Dartmouth
• One receives a Dual Degree from either Germany/Finland and Home Institution
• Flight to/from Europe Paid For
• Room AND Board PAID for!
• And the opportunity to travel with a cohort that includes students from the German, Finnish, and the UMass universities.

The only reason I wouldn’t take advantage of this opportunity would have been the money situation, but thanks to a grant from the State Department of Education, our living costs abroad will be taken care of. The other issue was that this opportunity was designed for first semester sophomores in mind. I was a junior at this point. In total one would be away from his/her school for a total of 3 semesters and one would have to finish a last semester at their home university. This means one would need to commit two years to the program, and I only had one year left.

In the end, it was literally a no-brainer. With the job market the way it is, and the allure of constantly traveling, an extra year in school that will actually be spent in Europe was the way to go.Actually, even if the job market was booming, I would always take the traveling over settling into a 9-5!

One of the more exciting aspects of the program is the fact that there’s a group of students from each of the partner schools and we all travel together! This way, there will always be someone familiar with the school/city/country and it’ll make the culture shock less shocking, and more thrilling! Seriously, for the first group to participate in this program, I couldn’t have wished for a better group. Truly the most terrific people I’ve met in my life, and I’m glad we have another year together! (Hopefully, they can stand to be with me for another year!)

Currently, we’re in the third leg of this program and I’m finally getting the opportunity to go to Germany and Finland. Starting February 28th, I’ll be in Europe for 11 months. I. Can’t. Wait. My Nikon d7000 and I are going to have an awesome time!

PS: I’ll have additional posts on the individual semesters and my awesome cohort in the upcoming weeks before I leave!

Also, that awesome website for our program was designed and programmed by one of our very own German cohort participates, Ando Wagner. If you need any awesome websites designed, please click that link! Don’t worry, he speaks English! Prost!