We've Come a Long Way From Where We Began

It’s hard to believe that four weeks have already gone since we were preparing to leave home to start the SUSI program. Now, we are preparing to leave our host city of Columbia, South Carolina, the place we have called home for four weeks, to embark on the study tour.

Today we had our farewell lunch, the agenda for which we organized ourselves. We started with speeches from our two coordinators, Ray and Alisha, and one by me. There were tears and laughter throughout the rest of the afternoon.

The guests really enjoyed learning about our countries with the "European countries facts" quiz. It came to a surprise to some that we did not have one evacuation during our time here, but four, and that between us, we use 4 alphabets.

We delivered our closing speech in turns, as a group, in 19 different languages. This was reflective of both our collective unity and individual uniqueness.

After receiving our certificates, we said our goodbyes and see you laters to almost all of our cultural ambassadors, since they are not joining us onto Washington, DC.

It was an emotional day, but we are excited to start the next, sadly final, part of our journey as we prepare to present our Capstone Projects in DC.