Today marks the close of UF’s first full week of classes — a week of experiences that, for 11 freshmen, strangely paralleled those on Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula.
The John V. Lombardi Scholarship and Penelope W. and E. Roe Stamps Scholarship recipients were acclimated to college life before arriving on campus. During a six-week summer study abroad program, the students lived with host families and attended classes in Mexico.
“We’d slosh through the muddy downtown streets to ecology class, and many of us had broken umbrellas,” said 19-year-old communication sciences and disorders freshman Kaitlyn Johnston. “I guess that was very good preparation for UF.”
Sameer Saboungi, an 18-year-old biology freshman, said the trip helped him form a close network with other students before he stepped on campus.
“Once you get here, you’re still getting used to the setting, but you have this base of friends you can count on,” Saboungi said.
Others made different connections between Mexico and UF.
“I’ve been lost in both places,” said Stephen Gibbs, an 18-year-old chemical engineering freshman.
Gibbs compared navigating the bus system’s website to asking for directions in broken Spanish at 10 p.m., the first time he used public transportation in Mexico.
“The bus system is a little bit easier here,” he said.
