Studying abroad was never an option for me when I was getting my bachelor’s degree in the Philippines over a decade ago. Between the cost and simply not knowing such opportunities existed for someone like me, international study always felt like something other people got to do. But now, as a graduate student at The University of Texas at Austin, I’ve realized how many more doors are open to me, including the chance to participate in study abroad programs like SPICE (Summer Program in Communications Erfurt).
SPICE is an eight-week residential summer program held in Erfurt, Germany. It is run through UT’s Moody College of Communication in partnership with the University of Erfurt’s Department for Media and Communication. The program draws students not just from UT but from other American and German universities. My cohort brought a mix of backgrounds, majors, and life experiences—a mix that shaped almost everything about the eight weeks that followed.
Settling Into Erfurt
Erfurt isn’t a city most people have heard of before they arrive, and that’s part of what makes it special. Located in the heart of Germany, it’s the capital of Thuringia, characterized by cobblestone streets, a medieval old town, and a pace of life that felt worlds away from the fast-moving academic environment American students are used to. I remember walking across the Krämerbrücke — a bridge lined with shops and half-timbered houses — during my first week and thinking that this was the kind of place I’d only ever seen in postcards. It was a surreal experience, to say the least.
The program’s schedule followed a rhythm I hadn’t experienced before. Classes ran Friday through Sunday, which left the rest of the week open for travel. This seemed like an odd structure to me at first, but it quickly became one of my favorite parts of the program. It meant that Erfurt became a kind of home base; a place to return to after a few days of exploring somewhere new, rather than a city I only saw from inside a classroom.
What Goes on in the Classroom
The coursework leaned into topics like communication ethics and media studies, and discussions often stretched well beyond the syllabus. In communication ethics, we worked through frameworks like Kantian duty and utilitarian cost-benefit thinking, then applied them to real situations: should a journalist protect a source, or does a PR firm owe the public the full truth?
Meanwhile, my second course, media and politics, explored how German and American press systems cover the same stories in strikingly different ways. We also examined how state media, historical memory, and political messaging still shape public discourse in both countries today.
In addition, the program included visits to sites of historical significance in the region — like Buchenwald and the former Stasi building, among others — giving real weight to conversations we’d been having in the classroom. It’s one thing to discuss ethics and responsibility in the abstract. It’s another to stand at a former concentration camp, or in the halls of a building once used for surveillance and control, and have those conversations spill out of the classroom and into the world. Those excursions reframed a lot of what I thought I understood about the coursework, and I don’t think I’ll ever unlearn what I took from them.
The People Made the Program
The professors and the coursework were only half the reason SPICE stuck with me. The other half were the people. By week two, my roommates and I weren’t just part of a cohort — we were the people planning weekend trips together, comparing notes on which currywurst stand was actually the best, and having the kind of deep, late-night conversations about life and worldviews that you don’t expect to have with people you just met.
Our German classmates were also generous with their time and their city, pointing us toward restaurants and hangout spots we never would have found on our own. And the program coordinators, who fielded every logistical question and minor crisis with patience, made the whole experience feel far less intimidating than it could have been for someone navigating a new country for the first time.
Coming from an undergraduate experience where the phrase “studying abroad” wasn’t even part of a student’s experience, I didn’t take a single part of this for granted. Every weekend trip, every class discussion, and every conversation over dinner with my new friends enriched my life in ways that wouldn’t have been possible if I hadn’t seized this opportunity in the first place.
What I’m Taking Back with Me
More than giving me academic credit or a stamp in my passport, SPICE provided me with a firsthand sense of how much richer learning becomes when it’s pulled out of a single classroom and set against a backdrop of diversecultures, classmates from all walks of life, and an entirely different pace of life. At 36 years old, it reminded me that access to these experiences shouldn’t depend on where you are in your academic career — and it made me want to make sure other students who once felt the way I did know that programs like this exist, and they’re not out of reach.
If you’re a UT student on the fence about spending a summer semester in Erfurt, here’s what I’d tell you: it’s worth it, and it’s more doable than it seems.
This blog was contributed by Merryman Revell Creative Excellence Scholar Michelle Lavergne. Michelle is a Moody College of Communication graduate student participating in the Spice Communications Program in Erfurt, Germany.
