How one journalism student is reclaiming the first-year experience he never had during lockdown

Caelan Monkman was one of the thousands of people lining up at Service Canada last December to get their passports renewed. Monkman was anxious since he was booked to fly to Denmark in January, exchanging his winter semester at TMU for one at the Danish School of Media and Journalism (DMJX). 

Sitting in Aarhus now, Monkman has 20 tabs open, a bag to pack for his next trip - to Berlin - and his course intentions open to submit for his fourth year.

Monkman says he decided to cross the Atlantic for a semester to discover more of the world because travelling was instilled in him from a young age - his parents are both avid travellers.

At the DMJX, Monkman is taking a program weighted towards international reporting,with classmates from around the world.

"I'm getting a lot of international perspective that I wouldn't get otherwise,” he said. “There’'s about 40 of us from 22 different countries. And so there's a lot of opportunities to learn about how other countries' news networks function, how they consume news," says Monkman.

The journalism students doing a semester abroad this semester have traveled to Belgium, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, Singapore, and the UK, says Ben Shelly, Academic and Outreach Coordinator for the School of Journalism. 

Monkman said he decided to go to Denmark because it was one the only school entirely devoted to journalism. 

"A lot of other options were universities, like TMU, that had a journalism program. I thought it would be unique to go to a place that the school is only journalism," says Monkman. 

Monkman says he likes DMXJ’s small community - about 2,000 students - compared to TMU’s, about 20 times bigger. 

"I feel like we get more opportunities to interact with our fellow classmates as well," says Monkman. 

The European experience is an opportunity for Monkman to make up for the lockdown experience of his first two years at TMU. 

"This has felt like the start of university that I never got because of COVID. There's been so many opportunities to meet people, to do those introductory things that maybe I didn't get the first time around,” he said. “It's been very cathartic, almost, to have that opportunity to do the things that I wouldn't necessarily have had otherwise," says Monkman.

Even before pandemic lockdowns, the semester on exchange gives students an opportunity to understand other cultures and gain a better understanding of the world. 

"It's a great opportunity and something I think a lot of students look forward to,” said Shelly. “Students are able to continue building their skills as a journalist overseas at some great partner institutions and do so while staying on track progress-wise within the program at TMU.”. 

Monkman says one challenge is navigating the language barrier in Denmark, even though many Danish people speak English.

"I spend a comically long time at the grocery store. I have to translate everything, like, Is this what I think it is? And, even if I'm, oh, yeah, I know that I'm looking at eggs, then I have to do the currency conversion as well and be like, is this a good price for eggs?” 

Speaking of grocery stores, Monkman says people bring up bagged milk during conversations about Canada. If they heard about it, they still ask him, “s that real?” If they haven’t heard of it, they say it “sounds like a crime against God," says Monkman.

Monkman will be in Denmark until July, and one of his goals is to discover as much as he can in Europe with travels  to Copenhagen, Berlin, and soon, to Brussels. 

He plans to return home just a little bit changed. 

"I'm discovering things about myself here that I didn't know back home. And so I think it will be a goal moving forward of how do I take those things that I've learned about myself, and make sure that I don't revert back to my old self when they go back home," says Monkman.

Monkman also says he is grateful TMU prepared him compared to other schools.

"I would say that generally speaking, I have been better prepared, if not better prepared, had more of a broad opportunity afforded to me at TMU than a lot of people I've spoken to have at their journalism program. So I think that has been a huge asset as well. And something that has definitely made me realise how lucky I am to go to a journalism program at a school like TMU," says Monkman.

If you're looking into an exchange experience like Monkman, his advice is to make the most of it wherever you go. 

"I think that no matter where you go, it's what you make of it. So I think, whether you go to the world's largest city or a tiny corner of the globe, if you make the effort to get whatever you want to get out of that experience, you're going to have a good time," says Monkman.