A Little Bit About Me

Location:
Ísafjörður, Iceland
Latitude/Longitude:
66.074878000000, -23.125068400000
Journal Entry:

Hello! My name is Alexandra Yingst, and I am a PhD student in Global Studies at the University of Iceland. I'm originally from Hershey, Pennsylvania (like the chocolate!), and I lived in Pennsylvania my entire life until I moved to Iceland in 2016. 

After finishing high school, I went to college at the University of Pittsburgh. I studied biology, sociology, and international and area studies with a focus on Latin America. During college, I had the amazing opportunity to study abroad in the Galápagos Islands and conduct research in Panama. After those experiences, I knew I wanted to live abroad one day because I loved traveling and getting to know other cultures, but I thought it was going to be somewhere warm. Somehow I ended up going in the opposite direction, up to 66° North, just below the Arctic Circle! 

I had visited Iceland with my family as a high school student, and I was captivated by its otherworldly landscapes. When it was time to apply for my next steps during my senior year of college, I felt a pull to apply for something in Iceland. So I applied to a Masters program in Iceland that perfectly aligned my interests of studying people and their connection to the sea: the Coastal and Marine Management program at the University Centre of the Westfjords.

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