Sara Durkee – Student Success Story
One of the reasons I chose Tiffin University was to gain some
new experiences outside my home state of
Michigan. I had never lived outside of West
Michigan, so I saw going to school in Tiffin as a great way to meet
new people away from home. I don’t think I
ever realized how far from home the different opportunities offered
by Tiffin would take me.
First, as a member of the women’s Golf Team, I got to play with girls from many different teams and different backgrounds. I loved traveling around Ohio to play in many tournaments in the area. My freshman year, the team won the NAIA conference and we were lucky enough to fly to San Diego, California to compete in the national championship. It was so much fun to go to California with my team, play golf at such a high level, and enjoy the warmer weather and the ocean.
Our sports teams have since moved to NCAA Division II to play in
the Great Lakes Athletic Conference. We now get
to compete all over the region with tournaments in Michigan,
Indiana, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. Playing for TU
showed me just how much I love to travel.
I decided that I wanted to do even more traveling, so when I
heard about Tiffin’s Study Abroad program, I knew I had to
take advantage of it. Through affiliate programs
that TU has set up, I got to choose from England, Austria, the
Netherlands, Switzerland, and Thailand. Geneva,
Switzerland was an easy choice for me due to its central location
in Europe from which I could take the train or just a short flight
to many famous locations.
In the fall of 2008, I spent four months living in Switzerland
and studying International Business through an arrangement with
Webster University Geneva. It was an absolutely
amazing experience to live thousands of miles from home, speak a
different language, and discover a whole new
culture. I learned a lot about myself, including
that I love public transportation, croissants, Swiss chocolate, and
ancient architecture. In addition, I spent the
weekends traveling to some of the world’s most beautiful
cities including Torino, Nice, Monaco, Paris, Rome, the Vatican,
Venice, and Barcelona. There is no way I could
have seen so many sights without living in Europe for four
months. I have changed so much due to this
experience and am so glad that TU
helped me to do it.
When I first moved to Ohio, I thought I was experiencing culture shock when my new roommate called a ‘vacuum’ a ‘sweeper.’ I’ve seen a lot since then and have gained a whole different perspective on where I am from. Tiffin has offered me the close-knit atmosphere of a small school as well as national and world-wide experiences. I am so grateful to TU for all I have been able to learn inside the classroom and out in the past three years.