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Dear Future Bruin…

Hello, New Bruins!

My name is Avalon, and I’m a third year English and Disability Studies double major
from San Jose, California! As a pre-law student, I chose to complete a Communications internship through the UCLA Global Internship Program (GIP) last summer in Berlin. When I came to UCLA, I knew I wanted to study abroad at some point during my four years here. I had never really traveled growing up, so this was my chance to get out of my California ‘bubble’ and see more of the world. I never could have imagined, though, everything that UCLA Study Abroad would bring me beyond just the opportunity to travel—my best friends, experience in a field of sustainability I was interested in, and a reaffirmed sense of independence.

For the Global Internship Program, students apply to and match with an internship in their designated city. Along with five other UCLA students, I spent my Mondays through Thursdays working as a Research Assistant for the German Federal Association for Sustainability, an environmental NGO based in Berlin.

I got to work on three different sustainability projects with GFAS, including an German industrial hemp regulation proposal, a feasibility study on the use of industrial hemp for soil decontamination in Ghana, and a biochar training module. My favorite part about my job was that it gave me the opportunity to learn so much about these sustainability tools. As an English major, the scientific and technological concepts were at first unfamiliar to me, but with my own research and with the knowledge of my teammates, I eventually became an ‘expert’ in industrial hemp’s sustainability applications. Plus, I got listed as a coauthor for our feasibility study, so now I get to say I’m officially published!

After leaving work at 4pm each day, I had a lot of time to explore the city. Most of my friends had work until later, so the hours of 4 to 7 were usually filled with grocery shopping, trying my hand at Instagram recipes, walking around the nearby park, and just relaxing on my own before meeting up with my friends at night. This was my first time living alone—something I honestly thought I would hate, since I love the companionship of roommates. There were some challenges of independence, like making sure I always had food in the fridge and learning how to get around a city in a foreign language all on my own (my sense of direction is not the best), but I left Berlin feeling much more confident in my ability not only to take care of myself, but also to have fun alone.

And I’ve been writing this whole blog post just waiting to get to my favorite part: my best friends. Nothing felt scarier than packing up and leaving for two months in a country I’ve never been to before, with people I’ve never met. I had been to a single GIP social in February, but as I boarded my plane to Germany, I felt that same anxiety of, “What if I don’t make any friends,” that had plagued my thoughts as I entered my first year at UCLA. These worries, of course, were quickly proven wrong. I spent every evening with my (now) group of best friends, picnicking in the park by the creek, going out at night, ranking our favorite döner places, embarrassing ourselves trying to speak German, cramming  into someone’s apartment to watch “The Summer I Turned Pretty”, passing hours at the biergarten playing cards and talking. And on the weekends, we would travel, whether in groups or on our own, all over Europe. I booked a trip to Istanbul with my best friend Evrim three days before leaving; I went to Barcelona and to Amsterdam on my own to meet friends from home; and my whole friend group took an overnight bus to Munich for a weekend getaway. And on Monday, we would gather again at the biergarten to tell about our travels and listen to everyone’s stories.

These aren’t just my ‘study abroad friends.’ They’re some of the most kind, steadfast, and thoughtful people I have ever met. I left Germany with five new best friends, who I still see every chance I can get (I’m writing this next to my friend Jesus right now, after staying up way too late last night chatting and laughing with all five of them). I really believe that everyone in my GIP Berlin program was selected for a reason, just like each of you New Bruins was accepted to UCLA for a reason! I know the fear, anxieties, and stresses of moving to a new place all alone. But it’s that uncomfortable feeling of the unknown that brings the very best experiences. As you begin your college journey, I encourage you to find your ‘new,’ whether that be a club, a job, a major, or study abroad. It might just turn out that you find a second home.