My name is Julia Guss, and I am in my third year at the University of Richmond. However, this year I will be participating in the IES Urban Studies Program in Berlin, Germany. Although no one in my family studies or speaks German, my love of history has brought me to Berlin.
I grew up in a suburb of Los Angeles called Thousand Oaks, and I went to Westlake High School. I didn’t have a typical high school experience because of my fascination with traveling the world.
I grew up in a household that valued learning about the world through travel. For example, after college, my father lived in Moscow, Russia, and learned to speak Russian so he could communicate with our relatives in Ukraine (Russia's next-door neighbor). Before I even applied for colleges, I knew I wanted to follow in his footsteps–or even one-up him.
After visiting Europe, Australia, and China during high school, I decided to take a bold step and work toward graduating high school a semester early so I could solo-travel around Europe for 8.5 months at 18 years old. This took months of planning, a lot of hard work to graduate early while maintaining a 4.5 GPA, and I worked three jobs to save money to pay for my adventure.
Of all the 45 countries I visited, Germany spoke to my love of history like nowhere else. Knowing that Germany was a place I needed to spend more time in, I wanted to learn German as soon as possible. After I took my first German language and German history courses at the University of Richmond, I was so fascinated by it that I decided to major in those subjects.
Along the way, I’ve encountered professors who have become mentors to me and who are guiding me on my academic journey and deepening my appreciation of history. In fact, one professor, Dr. Michelle Kahn, is even guiding me through my first academic research project, which I’ll also be pursuing while in Berlin.
At 21 years old, I’ve now traveled to more than 50 countries on 5 continents, and each new place I visit reveals something new and interesting about the world and the people who live there. And while I’ve visited places from the pyramids in Egypt and the Great Wall of China to the Great Barrier Reef in Australia, it’s oftentimes the chance encounters that can be most interesting.
Want to know more about how you can study or intern abroad when you are a college student? The Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship Program is a program of the U.S. Department of State with funding provided by the U.S. Government and supported in its implementation by the Institute of International Education (IIE). Learn more about the scholarship by visiting www.gilmanscholarship.org.
