Short Term Study Abroad in Singapore

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Are you interested in studying abroad but unsure if you want to be abroad for an entire semester? Purdue offers short term study abroad (STEP) programs which are an amazing alternative to being abroad for an entire semester. These programs are also referred to as Maymesters because they typically take place for 2-3 weeks in May after classes conclude. This past summer I went to beautiful Singapore and I wanted to share more about it.


My class

While sightseeing in Singapore was amazing, I was technically there to take a class. The class I was enrolled in was called Bioinspired Materials and Structures: Translating Biological Principles into Engineering Applications. This was a mechanical engineering technical elective course. Everyday we had a lecture for 2.5 hours in the morning, which sounds long, but we had a break in the middle and I enjoyed what we were learning about. We focused on how to apply processes and structures that naturally occur in the environment and apply different engineering principles. An example of this is the application of naturally occurring origami systems in earwig wings to the wings of planes.

Free time

One of the great things about traveling abroad with a group is that our days were fairly structured with pre-planned activities, but we also had enough time to explore Singapore in the way we wanted. We had free time over the weekend and a group of us decided that we wanted to go to the beach. An amazing thing about Singapore is that the public transportation was stellar, I was able to easily navigate a new country via public transportation. We were able to take public transportation all the way to the beach and it only cost around $3 USD. Once we were there, we got into the water and it was so warm in contrast to beaches in the US that I have been to. We also found out this beach was the southernmost part of continental Asia which I thought was really cool. It was so nice to be able to explore and relax after a busy week full of activities. Most of our nights were also free to us, and we spent this time getting dinner, exploring Singapore, or catching up on sleep.

Activities

After our morning lectures and lunch we always had an outing or two planned that went along with what we were learning about or just something fun. One of my favorite activities from the trip was going to the Singapore Botanical Gardens. There was an amazing collection of plants that I had never seen before and a massive orchid garden. The heat and humidity in Singapore was something I had never experienced before so I was glad to hear there was an air conditioned section of the orchid garden. I was lucky enough to see beautiful orchids and a couple pitcher plants. Pitcher plants are similar to venus fly traps because they are both carnivorous plants. We had just learned about pitcher plants in our lecture and it was so surreal to see something that we had just learned about in real life.

Food

Almost everyday started off with our lectures from 9-11:30am. Then we had around 2 hours to eat lunch before we headed off to our afternoon plans. Typically we would go to a hawker center that was a 5 minute walk from our hotel. Hawker centers are essentially massive food courts with the yummiest food for incredibly low prices. I would get an entree, which was different almost every time, and a fresh fruit drink. One of my favorite meals I had at a hawker center was carrot cake and a strawberry apple drink. The carrot cake I had was not the sugary dessert we know in the United States, but it was essentially an omelet made out of a rice flour cake consisting of white radish. And let me tell you, it was so yummy that I got it twice. For dinner there was a mix of going out to a hawker center or a restaurant and even, more often than I may like to admit, onigiri from the 7/11 right next to our hotel.


Even though it was daunting going to a country on the other side of the globe without my family, I am so happy that I went on this study abroad. This upcoming summer I plan on going on another short term study abroad program. If you’re on the fence about studying abroad I 100% recommend doing it. If you want to learn more about the 15 programs in the spring of 2025, I recommend searching Purdue engineering short term study abroad or going to the Purdue Global Engineering website.

Ellie Bergeron, Chemical Engineering

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