‘Behind the Blue’: ‘What I did on my summer break’
LEXINGTON, Ky. (Aug. 19, 2024) – The summer break is nearing its end, and soon the University of Kentucky campus will once again be bustling with activity with the start of the Fall 2024 semester. For many UK students, however, their ambition and drive didn’t stop because it was summer break. Across the nation and world, undergraduate and graduate students alike have been working on expanding their experiences and education.
Regardless of whether they’ve been traveling or staying close to home, students have been enhancing what they have already learned at UK, and making plans to bring their experiences back to better their campus and communities. Summer is an ideal time of opportunity for students to take a leap into an experience within their college careers that will propel them into their chosen career field. These experiences can be catalysts in their personal lives, exposing them to new people, environments and ideas they may not have been able to explore during the school year.
On this episode of “Behind the Blue,” Vendela Norris, a recent graduate from UK’s College of Communication and Information, spoke with two such students about their summer experiences.
Devin Bester, a rising junior studying mechanical engineering, participated in a research program at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, for eight weeks. Bester discusses why he chose to pursue this program and what he learned from his experiences.
Marie Kouakou, a first-generation rising sophomore studying media arts and studies, participated in UK’s Explore First program in Dublin, Ireland, this summer. This first-of-its-kind education abroad program supports first-generation students UK, expanding horizons of students who may not have had the opportunity to participate in education abroad due to financial obstacles.
Learn more about Bester and Kouakou’s experiences by listening to the latest episode of “Behind the Blue” above, or wherever you get your podcasts. And follow along on UKNow in the coming weeks to learn about how other UK students spent their summer.
“Behind the Blue” is available on iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher and Spotify. Become a subscriber to receive new episodes of “Behind the Blue” each week. UK’s latest medical breakthroughs, research, artists and writers will be featured, along with the most important news impacting the university.
For questions or comments about this or any other episode of “Behind the Blue,” email BehindTheBlue@uky.edu or tweet your question with #BehindTheBlue. Transcripts for this or other episodes of Behind the Blue can be downloaded from the show’s blog page.
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As the state’s flagship, land-grant institution, the University of Kentucky exists to advance the Commonwealth. We do that by preparing the next generation of leaders — placing students at the heart of everything we do — and transforming the lives of Kentuckians through education, research and creative work, service and health care. We pride ourselves on being a catalyst for breakthroughs and a force for healing, a place where ingenuity unfolds. It's all made possible by our people — visionaries, disruptors and pioneers — who make up 200 academic programs, a $476.5 million research and development enterprise and a world-class medical center, all on one campus.