Macey Steinkruger is heading off to Italy for her first college semester.
A few weeks ago, Macey Steinkruger received her acceptance letter to study abroad for a semester with Creighton University in Italy. She applied first to the school, and then found the opportunity of a lifetime to leave Nebraska and live abroad.
“I was looking at all the scholarship options, and it has always been a goal of mine to study abroad, so I just took the opportunity, and went for it and applied,” Steinkruger said.
She mentioned the process to get accepted was long and drawn out, but worth it in the end.
“It’s pretty rigorous. First I had to apply to Creighton, obviously, and get accepted, and then I had to get a couple of letters of recommendation. I had to write essays and actually apply to the specific program. Then I had to do an interview with a representative from the program,” Steinkruger said.
Steinkruger will have an eventful couple of semesters through her college years. Not only is she going off to Italy, but also has other opportunities in the program to travel more.
“I could not choose where I wanted to go this time. So I’ll go with 20 to 30 other people, and they choose people specifically for the program. So, like, first semester, freshman year will be in Italy, second semester freshman year will be in Omaha, and then third and fourth semester we can choose either to be at Creighton first or to be in the Dominican Republic first, and then the other semester will be spent in Omaha, and then the other, like, two years, I think we get to choose where we go. So it will be fun,” Steinkruger said.
Steinkruger mentions that Italy will be very different from the life she has now, but she is super excited to be taking on such an adventure. She recalls the overwhelming feeling of being accepted by both her and her parents.
“I was really excited. It came in a letter, and I opened it and I read the first line, and I started jumping up and down like a little kid. My parents knew right away that I got in because I was so excited. Both of my parents think it’s pretty cool. My dad’s a little nervous because he just thinks it’s kind of weird that they do it right away in the first semester and just because it’s so far away, but he likes it,” Steinkruger said.
Steinkruger will be studying biology and believes that being in Italy is a great experience, not only for that but to be able to experience different cultures and aspects of the world.
“I am really excited to live abroad and see the different architecture and try different foods,” Steinkruger said.
Steinkruger has the opportunity of a lifetime and is not a stranger to making the best of it.
“I think it would just be like a good experience to see what other cultures are like. Obviously, I’ve lived in America my whole life and I went on a mission trip to Jamaica in 2019. That really opened my eyes, and since then I wanted to study abroad, and I don’t know, I feel like it’ll be a good experience. I recommend applying to programs abroad,” Steinkruger said.
