Studying abroad was at the top of Gabbi Fisko’s bucket list when she enrolled at Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College (SMWC) in 2024, and she made it happen this summer.
On May 27, Fisko, a junior criminal justice major and native of Phoenix, Ariz., set off on a three-week stay at the University of Limerick in Ireland, taking classes in terrorism, crime and justice.
“I want to work with kids in the criminal justice system, and it was interesting to get a new perspective on how the correctional system works in Ireland, where it’s less punitive than the U.S.,” she said. “You can’t stick to one perspective. You must look around and see what might be working somewhere else and ask yourself why that is.”
For her 2,000-word class essay, she focused on Ireland’s offender rehabilitation and use of restorative justice – or the face-to-face connection between victims and defendants, particularly juvenile offenders.
“I did some research on a five-year project in Ireland in 2019, working with 10 other European countries to see how restorative justice works in juvenile and adult cases,” she said. “I grew up in a not-so-great neighborhood and had friends who got in trouble with the law and were put in a correctional facility. It made me interested in how juveniles are rehabilitated.”
It wasn’t all work and no play for Fisko, though. Her classes ended at 4 p.m. on most days, leaving her plenty of time for travelling to places like Spike Island, Dublin and the seaside town of Howth. She also visited tourist sites, including St. John’s Castle and Bunratty Castle, and roamed a milk market.
“Limerick’s bus system made it easy to get to places, and it wasn’t that expensive either, but there was so much walking the entire time,” she said. “It was a 15-minute walk from the dorm in Thomond Village to our classes on campus. So, I would tell any student to be prepared for a lot of walking at U of L and for eating a lot of potatoes.”
One of the best parts of her trip was taking in Ireland’s scenery.
“It’s green in Indiana, but it’s fresh green in Ireland. That’s why my favorite place was the Cliffs of Moher. People were saying it’s usually very rainy, but we had clear blue skies that day, and it was gorgeous,” she said. “In the second half of the day, we went to Aillwee Caves for a tour, and I love exploring caves. We also watched a birds-of-prey show with three types of birds, which was cool because all the birds used to be native to Ireland but had to be brought back to show us because they were starting to go extinct.”
Fisko also went on two optional trips. The first was to Galway, Ireland, where her group walked around, went to shops and stopped at a bakery. The second was a bus tour of Donegal, Ireland, which included stops for students to take pictures, shop and hold lambs. Fisko and her newly made friends also scored good seafood chowder while out and about in the city.
Between classes and travel, Fisko kept nearly as busy as she is at SMWC, where she’s a member of the Chorale, The Madrigals, Student Senate and Sophomore-Freshman Leadership Committee. It’s a schedule with little space left for studying abroad during the school year.
But SMWC’s partnerships with universities in Ireland, Taiwan, South Korea, Japan, England, Italy, Greece and Ecuador made a summer experience possible.
“My dad and I were doing some study abroad research and found out the University of Limerick in Ireland was a sister school of SMWC,” Fisko said. “Then, I reached out to the Career Center and the Registrar’s office about transferring credits. Once I got accepted at U of L, it was smooth sailing.”
While she knew she loved traveling, studying abroad made Fisko even more ready to hit the road again.
“I traveled with a group for a service trip to Ecuador during high school, and I’ve been to Canada a few times with my family, but I didn’t know anyone this time,” she said. “I know I came to Indiana from Arizona to attend SMWC, but that’s nothing like crossing the ocean by myself or going through customs alone, and that made this such a good growth experience for me.”
Fisko’s Ireland trip propelled her into the second half of her summer back at SMWC, where she’s working for Facilities, interning at Vigo County’s Department of Child Services and still dreaming about her experience abroad.
“If I got the chance to do it again, I definitely would. You only live once,” she said. “A lot of students don’t have time to study abroad during the school year because they’re involved in things, or they’re athletes, or they think it’s too expensive to go for an entire semester. The summer school program abroad is a way around those hurdles, and it allows you to explore a different culture, which you do best when you go to those places.”
Find out more about the study abroad program at SMWC by going to https://www.smwc.edu/offices-resources/offices/career-center/study-abroad/
0 Comments