In classes, field trips, and excursions with Virginia Tech faculty members Joell Eifert, Vivica Kraak, Nicolin Girmes-Grieco, and Steger Center Executive Director Sara Steinert Borella, students learned about European food production, culture, sustainability, nutrition across the lifespan, and health. With its central location in Europe, the Steger Center provided easy access to many of the continent’s premier culinary, cultural, and geographic highlights.
“Switzerland hosts three language groups, and hence three cultural groups, all of whom approach food traditions from varying perspectives,” said Steinert Borella, a cultural studies scholar based at the Steger Center. “As home to the World Health Organization and some of the best locally and sustainably produced food in the world, it’s a phenomenal laboratory for students studying food and health systems and practices.”
On week-long, faculty-led excursions, students visited sustainable farms and vineyards; the United Nations and World Health Organization headquarters in Geneva; the Lindt chocolate factory; the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne; the International Red Cross museum; cheese, meat, and balsamic vinegar producers; and the world’s oldest vegetarian restaurant, among other highlights.
“To say that this experience was transformative is honestly an understatement,” said Cameron Levin, a senior majoring in food science and technology from Herndon, Virginia. “Living in Switzerland completely changed my perspective on food waste and sustainability. It was amazing to see how clean they keep their cities and how strict they are about minimizing waste and separating recycling. Living there has encouraged me to think more about recycling and repurposing food.”
Surrounded by more than 60 Hokie students and faculty from diverse disciplines at the Steger Center, “it was like living in a mini Virginia Tech campus in the Swiss countryside,” said Samantha Burgess, a junior from Herndon, Virginia, majoring in food science and technology.
Weekends were free for students to travel and explore all that Europe had to offer.
“We all immediately clicked and traveled everywhere together – to Switzerland, Italy, Spain, France, Ireland, Scotland, England, the Netherlands, Germany, Greece, and more,” Simon said. “We also got very close with our professors, who are incredibly knowledgeable and passionate about their work. Even on our excursions, they always made it a fun learning and travel environment.”
“I think one of the best days of the week was Sunday night dinners at the Steger Center, sharing our meal with our professors and telling them about our crazy weekend experiences in whatever new country we went to that weekend,” Burgess said. “And we traveled almost every weekend. We saw the canals of Amsterdam, tasted the escargot of Nice, walked around Parc Güell in Barcelona, and walked through the Tower of London. It was exhausting, but also hands-down the most fun ever had.”
Students also had the opportunity to do independent study at local farms and restaurants and to volunteer in an afterschool program.
“I learned from and helped out with a completely organic, zero food-waste restaurant called Afiordigusto,” Levin said. “Afiordigusto takes produce from local farms that would have otherwise been thrown out and they repurpose that food into the meals that they serve or into products that they sell.”
For Levin, Simon, Burgess, and many other students on the trip, the experience deeply influenced their academic and career goals, as well as their world views.
“I think the best thing about the program was that it allowed us to experience so many ‘behind-the-scenes’ aspects of food culture in Europe that aren’t necessarily available to travelers on a personal vacation,” said Burgess. “I would absolutely recommend this program to any student interested in learning about the food culture and sustainability practices in Europe. The experiences we had, from touring a Swiss university that transformed its dining services into one that offers a wide variety of delicious, sustainable, plant-based food options, to taking cooking classes in the Green Food Lab to learn zero-waste recipes, opened up so many avenues for me to achieve my career goal of working in food sustainability.”