Introduction

Who am I and What am I doing?

My name is Maggie Wells and I am going to be a Junior at the University of Nebraska at Kearney. I major in Multimedia and I have a double minor in Strategic Communications and Media Production. I am originally from Conroe, Texas, which is a suburb of Houston. I was originally drawn to UNK because of the swim team, but I fell in love with the Communications Department. I am hoping to go into video productions once I graduate, and I’m hoping this blog and video blog will give me some valuable experience. What I am doing with this blog is writing and showing through video my study abroad trip to The Netherlands. I went to The Netherlands with students from Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. This was a criminal justice study abroad so we explored the criminal justice system in The Netherlands. I documented these criminal justice experiences as well as other things we were exposed to in The Netherlands. Stay tuned to this blog to learn more about crime in The Netherlands, exploring The Netherlands as an American college student, and some history and culture of The Netherlands. Keep reading to learn how this opportunity came about, why I chose to do this, the people I traveled with, and the importance of this trip to me. You can also watch the day 1 video blog after this paragraph.

How this trip came about

When I was a girl my Uncle Kevin would come visiting my family in Texas and he would tell me stories of his experiences abroad while smoking a cigar on our back patio. Little did young Maggie know that one day she would be part of these wonderful stories. He would tell me stories about Ireland and Amsterdam, so Amsterdam became the number one place I wanted to visit growing up. Learning about the history and the culture of The Netherlands intrigued me. Throughout high school and my first year of college I would plan trips to Amsterdam, but I never actually went. Then, in February of my sophomore year of college, I get my normal birthday present from my Uncle, but instead of a silly little note like he normally does, he sent me an itinerary of his study abroad to The Netherlands and it said in big bold letters “Happy Birthday. Tell your parents to let you go to Europe with me” in just a few short words and a long call begging my parents to let me go, my dream was coming true. The planning process was complicated and I was in a time crunch. Luckily my Uncle was able to get in my information for me to go. Once I knew I was going to be able to go, I went straight to my advisor because I wanted to do an independent study. We quickly wrote up a contract and we agreed that I could make a blog for this trip. I would be able to use my video and writing skills to document my time abroad. I did run into one problem when planning this trip, finals week was May 12, 2024 to May 17, 2024 and the trip was May 13, 2024 to May 26, 202. I was missing finals! Luckily I have some wonderful professors that were willing to work out the details with me. I ended up turning in all my finals early, and I took one final online while in Amsterdam. With everything figured out, I was ready to ship off to Amsterdam.

Meet the team

Let’s meet a few of the amazing people I was lucky to study abroad with.

Meet Hannah Wilson:

“Hey there my name is Hannah Wilson and I am technically a sophomore but should be a senior I just transferred to the Southern Indiana University. I am going to school for sonography specifically to become an ultrasound tech! I was able to foon this trip because my twin sister Madison goes to SIUE and Dr. Cannon was nice enough to let me apply and go on this trip as well. I have a lot of very fond memories from the trip but my favorite memory from the trip would be when all the girls came to our room and on the last night we all sat and talked and laughed for hours, I look back on that a lot and miss the girls so much!”

Meet Madison Wilson:

“Hi my name is Madison Wilson and I am a senior at SIUE. My majors are Psychology and Criminal Justice. My favorite activity on the trip was going to the Anne Frank House. I have wanted to see the Secret Annex in person for as long as I can remember; it was so surreal and heartbreaking to see it. I also really enjoyed just hanging with all of the girls and getting to know one another.” 

Meet Zoey:

“I’m Zoey, I’m class 2027, my major is criminal justice, and my favorite thing about amsterdam was spending time with amazing people, great food, beautiful architecture, and overall getting to have this experience and make new memories :)”

Meet Morgan Petry:

Morgan is going into her senior year at SIUE, she graduates spring of 2025! She is majoring in criminal justice. 

“My favorite thing from the trip was getting close with all ther girls as the trip went on. We started the trip as 13 separate individuals but I feel like we left with friendships and memories that we will carry with us forever. Place wise, I really enjoyed visiting the Anne Frank house and seeing the history there. 

Meet Nashay “Shay” Sanders:

Nashay is a Junior at SIUE and she majors in Criminal justice.

“My favorite part of the trip was between the Markets and the Rijksmuseum”

Meet Micheala: 

Micheala is a criminal justice major and she is graduating December 2024. Micheala’s favorite part of the trip was “the people I met”

The women I traveled with are kind, intelligent, worldly, and just fun to be around. I met some amazing people on this trip that I am still in contact with today, and I know all of them are reading this right now (Hey ladies!). I was lucky to go on this adventure with these young women, I know they are going to do some amazing things and I’m glad I was able to be part of their lives on this trip with them. I was originally very nervous to go to another country with a bunch of strangers, but I enjoyed getting to know each and every one of these ladies and I can’t thank them enough for making my experience better because they were there. 

Why this trip was important

This trip was very important to me and my experiences. I learned a lot about video blogging and blogging through research, like watching videos and exploring blogs made by other travel bloggers, but I also learned a lot by doing. I learned the importance of taking notes, not being afraid of videoing, asking for people’s approval to video, getting comfortable about videoing, and time management. One thing I didn’t realize is how hard it was going to be videoing everyones every move. I was fortunate enough that everyone was willing to be in the vlog and put in their input on our experiences. Another thing that was challenging to me was the amount of content and going through it all. I took notes, videoed a lot, and did many activities. Not only was it hard to narrow down the things I wanted to post about, but it was hard to go through everything in a timely manner. However, I got through everything, I am now happy with everything and posting my blog for the next couple weeks. This trip wasn’t only important for my blogging experience, it was also important for my knowledge. I am someone who enjoys traveling, and I learned how to get around a foreign country, I learned how to be safe, I learned how to navigate large airports and public transportation, and I learned many other things. Going on this trip helped me immerse myself in another culture and learn about the history and customs of another place other than my own. This trip helped with my growth as a Multimedia student and as a woman of the world. I was incredibly lucky to be able to go on this study abroad and I am happy that I was able to go.

Conclusion

Stay tuned to Traveling with Maggie to watch videos, see photographs, and read more about what I learned and did in The Hague, The Netherlands and Amsterdam, The Netherlands.