My name is Thea Holtlund Jacobsen, and I took a double major in Marketing Communications and Global Studies with a minor in Business Administration. I am from Oslo, Norway, and after studying in the US I have moved back to Oslo, where I currently work as a CRM Manager for an IT-company called FrontCore. I always knew I wanted to take my degree outside of Norway, as I wanted to experience something new and challenge myself. After some research I decided to study in the US, and there is a Norwegian association that provides scholarships through certain partnering colleges in the US. Cal Lutheran was one of them, and after looking into the other options I eventually decided that Cal Lutheran looked like the best fit for me.
My favorite part of studying at Cal Lutheran was the ease of forming meaningful relationships, not only with fellow students but with faculty and staff as well. There is a special community at Cal Lutheran, where everyone is open and wants to really get to know you. Professors are easy to talk to and encourage conversation, and it shows that they really do care about you and want you to succeed.
The cultural differences between Norway and the US are not all too big, but some things that are noticeably different is how the US is more of an individualistic and capitalist country. It is more of a “everyone for themselves” mentality, in terms of for example health care, filing taxes and government services, where you are expected to pay for yourself and handle it all yourself. This was challenging in the beginning, as these services are arranged and paid for by the government in Norway, but it was a good learning experience. I also experience Americans to be generally more outgoing than Norwegians, and that it is more socially accepted to stand out and go for whatever you want to do in the US.
By: Thea Jacobsen