Author: Hayden Rogers | Major: International Business and Finance | Semester: Summer 2024

Panathenaic Stadium: Host of the first modern Olympic Games in 1896.

Hi! I am Hayden Rogers, a rising Walton Honors junior. I’m an International Business major with a Finance concentration. I spent Summer Session 2 in Athens, Greece through the AIFS program.

When people hear you are traveling abroad all they want to do is give you tips and stories from their experiences. It is inevitable that the topic of jetlag comes up. However, few people know Greece is immune to jetlag. The first night my roommates and I were headed out to dinner around 7 like normal people do. We were pretty surprised to see all of the restaurants empty, but I just assumed people only ate out on the weekends and it was just a slow Monday night. A few hours after dinner we decided it was time for ice cream and as we approached town, we could see life was everywhere. The restaurants were crowded and most interesting of all, the little park area in the center of town was full of life. Adults of all ages were sitting and talking while kids played on the playground. I came to realize that this was the way of life. From 11pm to nearly 2am the community was alive and together. This is when I fell in love with Agia Paraskevi.

I chose to spend a month in Athens for the history and the beauty. I really expected to tell people those things were my favorite part. What I failed to realize is that 2 days a week I get to be a tourist, and the other 5 I’m a college student in a small community. If you told me those 5 days would hold the experiences, I cherish the most, I would not have believed you.  The greatest part about studying abroad is you get the best of both worlds. You get to spend time seeing the reasons you wanted to go to that place and then you spend the rest of the time making a list of reasons to go back.

I had an amazing experience studying at the American College of Greece in Agia Paraskevi. Once again, I was fortunate to have two unique experiences in the classroom, both with wonderful professors. In the morning, I took International Business in a classroom with around 18 students from the US and 5 from Greece. I also took a dreaded evening course, Financial Management, with 7 students all from Greece. The first class was full of eager study abroad students from all over the states and the second was comprised of determined Greek students discussing their future. Many of the Greek students were nearing their graduation and were starting to look for job opportunities. Despite more challenging content this was my favorite course because it brought me close with Greek students. I think college students will agree that the more challenging the course, the closer the students will become.

I learned a lot both inside and outside the classroom on campus. My time in Greece was sweaty, it was full of long walks and water bottle refills, but it was also full of learning, friendship, and precious memories. There is not a thing I would change.