Luverne High School 2021 graduate Jayson Rops returned in May from Luneburg, Germany, where he spent the semester studying abroad at Leuphana University.
Rops, who just completed his sophomore year at the University of South Dakota, studied in the city just south of Hamburg, Germany, from January to May as part of the University Studies Abroad Consortium.
“I had thought about studying abroad but was uncertain about the cost and being so far away from my family and everything I knew,” Rops said.
“But eventually I decided that I was just going to do it and didn’t let myself back out of it,” he said.
Rops, the son of Tom Rops and Jodi Rops, joined 25 other university students from all across the nation in the program.
“The thing I enjoyed most about my semester was all the people in the program with me,” Rops said. “I met some really cool people.”
As a history major planning to become a teacher, Rops also enjoyed the opportunity to study near and visit so many historic sites.
In all, he visited seven European countries: Germany, Denmark, France, Greece, Italy, Ireland and England during his semester abroad.
“Seeing all that history and iconic landmarks was surreal,” Rops said.
Rops and another student from Texas resided with a host family in Luneburg, a city of about 70,000 people that included classic German architecture, cobblestone roads and plenty of bars and breweries.
He attended classes Monday through Thursday and was able to take advantage of his passport and inexpensive transportation to visit so many other locations.
After two years of German classes at LHS, Rops said he could understand more German than he could speak.
While at Leuphana University, he took German language classes and a Nazi German History course.
“I think this opportunity will benefit my career as a teacher,” Rops said.
“It will also benefit my life in general because I was exposed to an entirely new culture and society and learned things from a completely different perspective.”
Rops said he hopes to return to Europe in the future to visit Paris and Rome again, specifically the Louvre Museum and Palace of Versailles.
“There is just so much history in those cities and Paris, especially, was beautiful,” he said, adding that the opportunity to study internationally was worth it.
“I highly recommend studying abroad to everyone. Even if they are unsure about doing it, just do it,” he said. “It was the best four months of my life.”