Meet Hillary Tucker

-content provided by Hillary Tucker –

Hi everyone! I’m Hillary Tucker, a junior in the Whitman school studying finance, and dual majoring in public relations in the Newhouse School. For the spring semester I will be studying abroad in Madrid the capital of Spain. As a prerequisite to studying in Madrid everyone is asked to participate in a seminar program.

As a business or international relations major you have the option to apply for the Eurovision seminar. For anyone interested in Madrid – I highly recommend going on Eurovision. Eurovision is a ten-day excursion through northern Europe which gives students a chance to learn about the structure of the European Union and different European businesses through hands-on visits to EU bureaucracies, as well as some of Europe’s top enterprises. Many of the economics and business courses taught here relate to European Union relations; Eurovision has already helped me a great deal during my first week of classes.

On Eurovision, we traveled to Frankfurt Germany to visit the ECB, the European Central Bank, Deutsche Bank and the Mercedes Benz Factory and Museum. We spent our nights in Heidelberg, a more quaint part of the country. After Germany we traveled to Luxembourg, recognized as the wealthiest member of the EU. Here we visited the European Court of Justice and the European Court of Auditors. Our next visit was to the European Parliament and European Commission located in Belgium – by far my favorite country! We visited Brussels and Brugge, and after our lectures we toured a chocolate factory and indulged in the specialty foods which attract tourists from all over the world. Our last visit on Eurovision was to Paris, France to sit in on a lecture at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development with students from Brazil, London, and Germany. But not before a quick stop at eurodisney. A day to relax and have fun, everyone enjoyed the day even though it was freezing! We toured the Louvre and took a boat ride through the beautiful city of Paris. The following morning we flew from Paris to Madrid to finally meet our host families!

We arrived at the Real Madrid stadium to meet our families for the next four months; they were waiting anxiously for our arrival.

Abroad has been fantastic so far. I am looking forward to what is to come!