Hello everyone!
I am Ana Florez-Tascon, a rising sophomore from Martel, currently majoring in Neuroscience and pursuing the Engineering Design Minor. Likewise, I am an international student from Spain. One of the main things that drew me to Rice, aside from its academic excellence, was the great sense of community and collaboration on campus. From what I had gathered, it seemed like everyone at Rice was very welcoming and enthusiastic about their respective passions and studies, which to my pleasure I found to be very true once I made it on campus and got to start meeting the student body, so I am very pleased I ended up committing to Rice! As of right now I am on the pre-med track, with the intention of going to med-school and hopefully specializing in surgery, more specifically neurosurgery.
I wanted to do this study abroad program for various reasons. After taking ENGI 120 I was sure I wanted to pursue the minor in engi design, and this program definitively sounded like a great way to get some of those classes done. Aside from this, I love exploring cities and meeting new people, and coincidentally enough, I had visited Amsterdam last summer and completely loved the city, so the idea of getting to go back while getting the chance to get an education and meet different people was calling my name. I am mostly excited to get to visit the city and live fun experiences with the people here, I have been feeling super welcomed by everyone and can’t wait to make new and fun memories with them here! In addition to this, I am more specifically looking forwards to doing the canal tour, I think it’s a very fun way to see the city from a different angle and enjoy a nice time with friends.
In regards to the University of Amsterdam students I was pleased to see that they all seemed pretty welcoming and were enthusiastic about getting us involved in their after school activities. At the end of the day you never know how people are going to react to foreign students as they sometimes may have biases or assumptions about us that prevent them from meeting us with an open mind, but they were all very welcoming!
I am very excited to delve into everything this amazing program has to offer!