Last semester, while most ONU students were juggling classes and life on campus, one student was navigating cobblestone streets, interacting with foreigners in different languages, and exploring what the world looks like beyond the classroom. Caislyn Hummel, a senior at Olivet, studied abroad in Europe during the 2025 spring semester. Mixing her passion for cultural immersion and for multimedia, she strives to live in the uncomfortable.
“I am always choosing to stay in the uncomfortable because I know that is where God works in our lives.”
-Caislyn Hummel
“This has been a middle school dream of mine,” she says. Her decision to attend Olivet was in large part due to the international options that the University includes for communication majors. Dr. Mark Mountain from the registrar’s office was a big help to Hummel in her journey to one day study abroad in Europe. Striving to live in the uncomfortable, she was soon on a plane from Detroit to Amsterdam.
Her Journey
Although Prague served as home base, her journey was not stationary. She traveled to ten different locations throughout the continent, including four different countries. A true experience of cultural immersion had a lasting impact in Hummel’s life.
“Leaving Prague was so hard because I felt like I was being ripped away from my new family,” Hummel said. “My church community there was amazing and my mentor there was too.”
She made several good friends during her trip, one of which she even ran a half marathon with. She described these unique challenges and experiences as refreshing and exciting.
While this was an unbelievable experience for a college student who was born and raised in the United States, Hummel gained incredible experience in her field of multimedia communication. Academically, this trip allowed her to take a course about Czech film history. Hummel created a short film from her time in Prague, but after stating that she is her own worst critic, the final touches are still being put into place. A unique experience in a foreign location is a form of media creation that she found intriguing and exciting to create.
In a field with an emphasis on hands-on work, she saw a great opportunity to take advantage. Her course gave her two options to document her cultural experience: a paper or a film. “I’m a communication major,” stated Hummel. “I need to make a film.”
Hummel has extensive video production experience as she has served as the videographer for ONU’s soccer teams, currently directs live events for the department of media services at ONU, and created a documentary about a local band on campus. Given her expertise in creative video work, post-production, and love for foreign discovery, this was the perfect course and project.
This is a trip and experience that Hummel highly recommends for any Olivet student. She describes her time as life-changing and truly formative in the way in which she sees the world and ministers her faith unto others. Olivet offers an array of opportunities for students to have intercultural experiences such as mission trips, study abroad programs, and courses that allow you to explore the wide world.
