Twenty-five-year-old Danish student Papaya Gundertofte has always loved to travel. A few years ago, she came to Canada with a friend to do some backpacking. “We went to the Rockies and drove down to Vancouver, and I fell in the love with the city. It was that trip that inspired me to come back and do a study abroad exchange at Capilano University,” she says.
Papaya is an engineering undergraduate student at VIA University College in Aarhus, Denmark. “VIA is a longstanding partner of ours,” says Stasa Andric, Manager, Global Engagement, Wong and Trainor Centre for International Experience at CapU. “This partnership has allowed us to engage in exchanging students, faculty collaborations, and a high-impact COIL project.”
Papaya says she picked North Vancouver’s CapU for her semester abroad because of its access to nature, and its diverse student body. “The social aspect was important to me,” she says. In her brief time here, Papaya has joined five different school clubs including soccer, volleyball, and choir. “I know myself and I know I’m not great at walking up to people so joining these clubs has allowed me to meet new people in a fun way,” she says.
The experience has also allowed her to do some self-reflection. “Being away has allowed me to realize how grateful I am to have my life back home where I have lifelong friends and a family that loves me. For some reason I have always been drawn to leave, to travel, to meet new people, but being here also made me appreciate my life in Denmark. My semester here at CapU and in Canada has been wonderful, a big personal journey of growth,” she concludes.
With Papaya’s spring semester at CapU wrapping up, she is looking forward to embarking on a cultural adventure around BC for the next four months before returning home to Denmark.
