Blog Archives

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Dear Past Me: Look at You Now

GRIP: Business in Sydney, Australia Dear Pre-GRIP Isabella, You looked at your signed GRIP commitment contract, thinking, “What did I just get myself into?” As you made your travel and internship placement arrangements, you processed that you were actually spending this summer away from home. Not just an Amtrak ride away, but a 22-hour plane…

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Waiheke Island Log

GRIP: Social Sciences and Humanities Research in Auckland, New Zealand During my first week in Auckland, New Zealand, our student cohort visited Waiheke Island, where we stayed at a Marae and participated in traditional rituals within Māori culture. To enter the Marae we needed to be introduced by our guide, who already formed part of…

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From Penn to the Pacific: My Internship Experience in Auckland

GRIP: Social Sciences and Humanities Research in Auckland, New Zealand My internship in New Zealand took place at the University of Auckland, where I dove into historical research on German intervention in Samoa between 1900-1914. What began as a project on colonial dynamics quickly expanded backwards into the 1870s, as I traced how racial hierarchies…

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Living in the Future: Saying “Yes” to the Unexpected in New Zealand

SA: University of Otago Sophia, one of the Semester Abroad Correspondents, shares her experience abroad during the Fall 2025 semester. Follow along with the group of correspondents on our blog and look out for their images on the @pennabroad Instagram feed. Just in the past weekend alone, I’ve accomplished two things I never expected would be a part of my abroad journey:…