Learn about the Norwegian culture and society, and partake in a range of local excursions in the Oslo Area through this summer program that students from our department attend yearly.
For more information, please visit their website at http://www.uio.no/english/studies/summerschool/
The ISS allowed me to meet students from all over the world and let me learn with them!
Comments by Peder Digre
In the summer of 2010 between 26 June 2010 and 6 August 2010, I attended the University of Oslo’s International Summer School. This program was designed to be a setting for learning in an international setting with students from about ninety countries represented. The requirements of the school were to attend classes five days a week and take midterm and final exams. In addition, I participated in two excursions which were designed to introduce the Norwegian culture and landscape to students of the classroom. The program was very time demanding and between classes and doing homework, it is likely I spent about forty hours per week on school related activities. Lastly, I not only learned in classes, but also through special events like the Norwegian Cultural Evening, the International Cultural Evening, and films.
I had been investigating this program since I was in high school and I had special interest in it because my ancestors are from Norway and I have relative living there that I am in constant contact with. At the International Summer School I took Intensive Elementary Norwegian, Norwegian Literature, and Norwegian Life & Society. As well as completing some course goals I wanted to gain a more global perspective of the world and I did accomplish this. I interacted with people from all continents (except Antarctica) on a daily basis and I heard from them about their views of the world and in turn I told them about mine. This sort of engagement leads to a type of learning that results in a profound sense of understanding and awareness that cannot be accomplished in a classroom full of alike students.
Overall, I will use the knowledge I gained, both in the classroom and out, to help raise awareness of global issues and perhaps provide someone with information they may not get if they don’t have the experience of talking to someone from a different country. Finally, I saw this project as a good introduction a possible future career traveling the world and researching population genetics. If nothing else, it gave me the images of faces and their experiences to think of when I see events on the news happening in other countries.
If you would like to read the blog I kept while in Norway: http://norskestudier2010.blogspot.com