One of the amazing things about studying abroad is being able to gain experiences that you never would have been able to do on campus. Over this past summer, I participated in the GCC Copenhagen: Global Reproductive Health program. This entailed me taking the course Women and Gender Studies 220 during the winter semester, and then taking this 2 credit extension course for 3 weeks in Copenhagen, Denmark.

 

Our first field trip was a visit to a Sex Ed Organization. There, my class received a sex ed lesson that would typically be given to middle school aged kids in Denmark. A large focus of my class was being able to notice the parallels between reproductive health and care in Denmark versus the US and I don’t think anything would have been able to show this contrast better than actually attending this class. It’s one thing to be told about how it works, and a whole other to actually experience it. In this class, we were asked questions that would never be allowed in the US, we were given examples of and shown all different forms of contraceptives, and were given different scenarios and asked to give our opinions on whether or not we thought it counted as sex. 

This lesson helped our class see the stark contrast between what we have been taught and what is being taught in other countries. The majority of us had received some form of abstinence-first education and couldn’t fathom how open another country could be about topics such as these. At home, these topics are seen as very taboo—but I believe that being able to have these conversations is much more progressive, as countries that practice this like Denmark show lower teen pregnancy and STD rates. So this enabled us to see how opening up the conversation can actually do a lot more good than some believe.

Our next field trip we went to something called a “Traffic Playground,” which I think is one of the cutest things I’ve ever seen. It is a park which mimics the structure and streets of Copenhagen and is meant to teach children road safety. It has a “road” and sidewalks, as well as traffic lights and pedestrian crossings, and kids are able to ride around on their bikes through the little streets. Since they are kids, they don’t really respect the traffic rules, but I still think it is such an innovative idea. Our class taught us about how child rearing can tend to look in Denmark and one thing we all fixated on was how independent the children are raised to be. I saw kids as young as 4 riding on bikes with no training wheels and their parents watching over from a distance. Personally I didn’t learn how to ride a bike until I was about 7, so I was very impressed with these kids and how independent and confident they seemed to be at such a young age.

Our last field trip was to the “Medical Museum.” Here, we were able to learn about how medicine has changed and progressed throughout the years. This museum in particular stuck with me because we were able to see things that I know I could never see anywhere else; specifically, there was a room filled with the corpses of fetuses born with abnormalities. The majority of my program were pre-med students, including myself, and we found this very fascinating, albeit a little unnerving. These babies were born with abnormalities such as mermaid syndrome, cyclops syndrome, and even conjoined twins. The reason I know I could never see this anywhere else is because it is actually not legal to have a collection like this anymore, but this one was made before that regulation was put in place. So if I had not studied in Copenhagen, I would never have been able to see something as unique as this. 

Overall, I wouldn’t have traded my experience for anything in the world because it was so unique and really helped me understand the subject material so much better. To truly understand how two countries differ, there is no better way than to go and experience both. And by being able to interact so closely with the material, I was able to gain a new unique perspective that I wouldn’t have been able to gain by just simply being told the differences while still on campus.

 

This is me at Nyhavn, the famous canal with the colorful houses.
This is Glyptoteket, a giant art museum where entrance is completely free on the first Wednesday of every month!
This is me at Helsingør Castle on our one-day study tour to the small, nearby village, Helsingør.

 

Have questions for Nicole about her GCC experiences in Copenhagen, Denmark? Contact her at nicolbee@umich.edu.

Learn more about our GCC programs, such as Global Course Connections (GCC) in Copenhagen, Denmark - Reproductive Health, on M-Compass.