Brussels! Part 1

My name is Jill Johnson, and this January I traveled to Brussels, Belgium to live, study, and intern for the spring semester of my junior year. Even though my trip was cut short, for time I spent in Brussels made it feel like home...

“Jump in”. This phrase is a favorite of my coordinator and greenlight for girls founder Melissa Rancourt. In my two months as an intern there, I learned to not only live by the phrase, but embrace it as well.

Our group in Kortrijk

greenlight for girls -no capitals, two spaces- was, and is, my home away from home in Brussels, Belgium. Their mission was founded on the idea that more girls should be inspired to go into STEM careers. STEM careers are those surrounding the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. The company has been inspiring young girls for almost ten years now, but ask any of the team and they are just getting started. In order to accomplish such a lofty goal, g4g partners with companies such as CISCO, Stanley Black & Decker, Covestro, Nokia, Vodafone, and many more all across the globe to hold events for girls to foster their love of science and math. During these events, companies and g4g volunteers lead girls in science, tech, and math experiments to show them how exciting and innovate STEM careers can be.

In my first weeks at g4g, “jump in” took on a very literal meaning as I dove into helping Melissa streamline her communication with the International Board, and helped create documents for our long-term strategy. In addition to these tasks, I also immediately started out leading a project- talk about jumping into the deep end- and began brainstorming and creating a plan to modernize our Atelier space.

I was definitely not your typical intern, and the wonderful ladies in the office welcomed me as a member of the family. On any given afternoon you could find us gathered around our conference table, deeply engrossed projects such as researching statistics on women in STEM careers in the UK, or coming up with new experiments for the girls concerning circular economy. Just as often as our conference table was covered in work, it was also covered in chocolate, our collective office passion.

Beyond interning at g4g, I immersed myself in learning a new language, French, and continuing my economics major while studying international trade theory. “Jumping in” to both work and classes in such a new environment completely altered my world view. The way students learn, and what people in different parts of the world value in an education I never thought would be so different than what I had grown up with.

Studying in Brussels opened my eyes to the importance of being informed about what was going on in the world, not just in my country. In the two months I lived there, the EU saw two historic events take place: Brexit, and the COVID-19 crisis. And even though the latter cut our trip almost two months short- I still feel like a lot can be learned from watching the way different countries have handled the outbreak.

When not studying or interning, you could often find our group exploring one of Brussels many friteries’ (Place Jourdan was my favorite), or, hopping on the train to travel for the weekend. During our trip we travelled to many different cities both in and outside of Belgium. On our travels, we had the once a lifetime chance to explore cities like Lille, Paris, Amsterdam, Ghent, and many more.

Check soon for updates on the abrupt end of our semester in Brussels, and “jumping back in” once we were back in the United States!