Living & Learning
What is a DIS Living & Learning Community?
A DIS Living & Learning Community is an educational experience outside of the traditional classroom that integrates the co-curricular and your interest in exploring Copenhagen behind the facade.
At DIS we believe that Living & Learning Communities take your study abroad experience a step further by giving students the opportunity of intentionally engaging in the local community as well as learning how to build and engage in community work with fellow students. It allows you to form friendships across academic programs and to develop a close connection to a DIS Living & Learning advisor. Communities are self-governed and students plan their own activities with help from their DIS advisor.
Additionally, to ensure you engage with the Danish community surrounding you, you will also have to sign up for one out of six DIS immersion opportunities to ensure cultural engagement during your time in Denmark. Living in a Learning & Living Community means that you will earn 30 points toward the Intercultural Leadership Award (ILA).
Apply to live one of our five exciting Living & Learning Communities:
- Arts & Culture House: for students who have an interest in exploring a broad array of cultural offerings within theater, music, dance, film, painting, and writing.
- Culinary House: for those who enjoy cooking in a community and are interested in exploring their palates with new flavors and recipes.
- Global Action House: for students who enjoy civic engagement and that wish to be active with an international NGO while here.
- Green House: for students who wish to focus on community-building based around common interests in sustainability.
- Outdoor House: for students who like to get active in the outdoors and enjoy nature.
Read below for more details about each community.
Arts & Culture House Option
This Living & Learning Community is for students who have an interest in exploring a broad array of cultural offerings within theater, music, dance, film, painting, and writing beyond the ‘traditional’ art scene. Students don’t need to be an artist or a performer to join – just have a curiosity for art in general! The community may also decide to do art work themselves... so you will explore your creative side with this option!
Examples of activities:
- Visiting local museums
- Participating in an art workshop
- Discovering up-and-coming artist in local galleries
- Attending plays outside of the ‘mainstream’ art scene
- Keeping a journal of your observations and sharing them on a house-run blog
Culinary House Option
What’s cooking?
The Culinary House Living & Learning Community is a great choice if you are passionate about food. It is designed for those who want to learn more about cooking or if you consider yourself a budding master chef.
The students who live in the Culinary House plan activities that increase awareness of proper food preparation for other DIS students and contribute to the local community.
Examples of possible activities:
- Participate in preparing a weekly dinner with your housemates
- Increase you culinary skills by participating in cooking lessons led by a professional chef two or three times during the semester
- Learn how to cook ‘easy food’
- Play host to your fellow students at International Dessert Night
- Write food reviews
- Participate in wine tastings
- Visit local food producers on Zealand
- Meet locals for pot luck dinners
- Volunteer at a local organic student-run café
- Keeping a journal of your observations and sharing them on a house-run blog DIScover Cullinary Copenhagen
Additional Benefit: As member of the Culinary House community you get a 50% discount when signing up for DIS cooking classes and a 30% discount when signing up for DIS wine tastings! Click here to learn more about these DIS activities.
Global Action House Option
The Global Action House is an ideal community if you enjoy civic engagement. If you want to move beyond critical thinking and learn how to act on your viewpoints, then the Global Action House can help you do just that!
Students who live in the Global Action House will self-govern and plan activities outside of the classroom aimed at increasing awareness of global issues in the community and for other DIS students.
The community you will be part of is closely affiliated with MS Action Aid Denmark, an international NGO operating in more than 50 countries, including the U.S. This means you may have the opportunity to continue the work you start in Denmark back home.
Examples of activities could be:
- Discussions on global issues and development with professionals from Action Aid Denmark
- Promotion of global issues and international development among other students
- Living in the quarters of Action Aid Denmark with lots of opportunities for engagement
- Organizing campaigning events for the public
- Keeping a journal of your observations and sharing them on a house-run blog
After the semester you will be able to:
- See yourself as agent of change and have the self-confidence to act on issues of interest
- Develop leadership skills: Learn how to create your own activism events
- Develop intercultural awareness, understanding and appreciation of diversity
Green House Option
The Green House is a great choice if you have a passion for sustainability. It offers a shared living experience that moves you beyond the limits of the traditional classroom and gives you supplementary knowledge through high-impact experiential learning outside of the classroom.
Students who live in the Green House plan activities that increase awareness of sustainable living for the community and for other DIS students.
Examples of activities:
- Participate in preparing a weekly house meeting and organic dinner cooked with your housemates
- Discuss and implement sustainable living initiatives in the Green House
- Promote sustainable living among other DIS students
- Visit one of the ‘organic societies’ on Zealand
- Attend and organize DIS Climate Seminars
- Go mountain bike riding
- Organize and attend a weekend camp out
- Volunteer in a community-supported agriculture (CSA) project
- Keeping a journal of your observations and sharing them on a house-run blog DIScover Copenhagen Sustainability
The Outdoor House
The Outdoor House is a community for enthusiasts of the nature and outdoor activities. Students will have the opportunity to explore Zealand’s beautiful nature on various excursions, while also learning about various outdoor skills.
Examples of activities might include:
- Going on bike trips
- Camping out over a weekend
- Joining a running club
- Helping arrange a local relay
- Canoeing
- Hiking in the Danish countryside
- Keeping a journal of your observations and sharing them on a house-run blog
Application
We are looking for students with a genuine interest in commiting to a community – and an open mind. We want students who will commit to the housing options fully, join a community of peers who come from a wide variety of backgrounds and academic disciplines, and who want to do more with their academics outside of the classroom.
Apply for one of these unique living opportunities by completing the application, with you will find on the Housing Form in Student Registration. The application consists of a number of short essay questions concerning your interest in Living & Learning Communities.
Living & Learning Communities are considered DIS Residential Communities, however, space in Living & Learning Communities is limited and competition for places is high, so apply early and be sure to spend some time on your application. If you are not offered a place, you will be placed in your second or third housing preference according to housing availability.
Applications will be reviewed by the Living & Learning Community Committee and you will be notified of your placement via email 20 days before Arrival Day.
Living & Learning Communities are built upon the active engagement of housemates which each other and the greater community; therefore you should be willing to enthusiastically meet the requirements of that community. If you should choose to leave the community, either prior to arrival or during your semester, you will be allocated another housing option based on availability at that time.
