Having a month-long break between fall and winter term is something NCC students look forward to every year. The break from Thanksgiving to New Year’s is a time to relax after 10 full weeks of course work. Other students take this time to study abroad, take a class or participate in a verandah on campus.
For 2018, some highlighted locations were Greece, Morocco and Italy. Verandahs offered included “How to Be Happy” and “Writing for Social Justice.”
Many students used D-Term to unwind. Genny Bernardoni, ’20, traveled home for the break to Tinley Park. “I went to Breckenridge, Colorado, for four days with my boyfriend’s family and that was really fun. It was nice to go home and spend time with my family and my dog.”
Other students traveled a bit further for December. Rachel Walden, ’20, spent almost two weeks in Greece and Italy. For Walden, studying abroad was a great experience. “The best part of the trip was being able to walk around and explore after our morning tours of museums and sightseeing. The best way to learn about our surroundings was by getting lost and having to find our way back to the hotel.”
The second-best part is always food.
“The food…gyros, gyros, more gyros and pizza,” said Walden.
For students studying abroad for the spring term, Walden said her best advice is “To save your money as best you can before you go and while you’re abroad, try to find cheaper restaurants to eat at, sometimes they’re the best ones.”
A two-week trip to Japan was also a trip students could take over D-Term. Natalie Cebulski, ’21, said the best part about this trip was visiting Tokyo.
“We went to a lot of different places, but Tokyo was by far my favorite place to be because we went to the shopping center and on the last day, we had a free day, so me and my friend went to Tokyo Disney. We had the whole day there and it was really fun,” said Cebulski.
Her advice is to definitely to take a spring term trip.
“You get to experience another culture without being abroad for a whole semester. I chose to go through North Central to Japan because you’ll never get the chance to go there by yourself without the guidance from professors who went there,” said Cebulski.
So, what is going to happen to D-Term when the college makes the transition to semesters? According to NCC’s website, after the May graduation, “A three-week May term will follow, designed for in-depth, engaging learning opportunities that include international exploration.”
The trips won’t stop, but the full month break will.
