This is a picture of my core course and our hike to Ireland. Specifically, this is Howth Head in Dublin. I am in the green sweatshirt by the dog.

Author: Zane Garner | Majors: Biology, Psychology | Semester: Fall 2024

My time in Stockholm Sweden proved to be everything it was promised and far more. While I initially chose Stockholm due to the excellent compatibility of my academic goals and the program, I left with a love for a new country, love for a new family, and far greater perspective of the world. As aforementioned, the academics offered through the Danish Institute for Study Abroad (or DIS) intrigued me highly, particularly due to the medical nature of some of the courses. As a pre-med student, I was seeking academics that would further my current education as well as prep me for my future education. DIS offered that through a precision medicine course, an immunology course, a medical simulations lab, and most importantly, an opportunity to join a research team at the Karolinska Institutet, a highly touted medical research university located in Stockholm. Throughout my four months abroad during the fall semester of 2024, I was able to learn about drug development in various countries, hear from active researchers about their work in the field of immunology, learn basic medical techniques like venipuncture and suturing, and learn from a radiologist about medical imaging and interpretation. Knowing opportunities like these would be plentiful is what initially brought me to Stockholm. Joining a research team was not only a primary motivator to go to Stockholm but arguably the highlight of my time there. I worked in an unfamiliar discipline, neuroscience, and the goal of my project was to map protein distribution in the brain. Specifically, we were taught and expected to run a standard immunohistochemical procedure to carry this out. My project focused on the hippocampus in human brain tissue, an area primarily known for its role in memory formation and learning. I worked with a protein called NEUROD6, known primarily for its role in neuronal differentiation. We worked through the whole process, including slicing the brain tissue out of paraffin preserved blocks of tissue to prepare slides, staining said slides with the aforementioned procedure, and finally visualize our results using top notch scanning microscopes. I was able to get fantastic results, including winning the best image competition held amongst our lab team, but it was quite the journey to get to that point. My initial month or so in the lab went very smoothly, as everyone was getting the ropes of the procedure and living in a foreign country. However, once the focus on my own project began, the frustration started to build. I initially did not get good results, for any of the proteins I was working with, even my main one NEUROD6. I was unsure whether I was making procedural mistakes or if other issues were happening, but every failed experiment meant a wasted three days. Luckily, I was surrounded by an excellent team and an amazing mentor who all assured me it was just a part of the process. My mentor and I discussed and implemented a few small procedural changes, which led to phenomenal results. This trial-and-error process, along with great results based on perseverance and problem-solving capabilities made the whole research process incredibly rewarding. We were granted the ability to present our research to our program, with our experienced mentors guiding us through feedback on both our posters and results. This presentation process proved to be very fruitful and insightful and granted me skills I am positive will prove useful in my honors thesis project back here on the U of A campus. Outside of classroom and research activities, my host family and travels outside of Sweden were two areas that shine especially bright upon my reflection of my time abroad. My host family granted me the opportunity to get to know Sweden on a more personal level and develop incredibly personal connections. While I thoroughly enjoyed our expenditures out on the town that included a boat trip through the archipelago, visiting the local amusement park Gröna Lund, or spending time in Skansen, the open-air museum and zoo in Stockholm amongst many other things, it was the more quality time that I spent building the individual relationships that I cherish the most. Whether it was golfing with my 14 year old host brother, playing in the snow with my 12 year old host sister, going to a Swedish battle of the bands with my host dad, or the many conversations my host mom and I shared over a gin and tonic or glass of wine in the living room, I built life long bonds that will forever hold significance in my life. I was also blessed with travel opportunities outside of Sweden, including visits to the United Kingdom, Ireland, Denmark, and Germany. These trips were an incredible amount of fun where I got to take part in some of my favorite activities. I got to spend quality time in nature in both Ireland and Germany, taking some of the most breathtaking hikes I have ever been on. I was able to experience medical culture in both Ireland and Denmark through class arranged activities. I saw amazing and iconic architecture and historical sites in London that were worthy of post cards. I experienced a plethora of cultural activities, including Gaelic games in Ireland, a local soccer game in Germany, and local food markets in both London and Denmark. Out of all these activities however, it was the cross-cultural experience of seeing American traditions imparted on European countries through the NFL games I attended in both London and Germany that are some of my favorite memories gained. These travels left me imprinted with many viewpoints and perspectives on life that are obvious through lifestyle differences that I look forward to implementing in my own life and perspective. Overall, my time abroad gave way to an exponential amount of personal growth, and I will be forever grateful for all my time there.