Pomaire, a small town outside Santiago.
When Annie Geiger visited Santiago, Chile, for the first time the summer after her freshman year, it was love at first sight. The summer study abroad program was the perfect introduction to the country, and after the six weeks were up, she was left wanting more. “There was so much left to see,” she says.
Two years later, she was on a plane back to Santiago, this time for a whole semester.
Annie knew when she first came to Notre Dame that she wanted to participate in a study abroad program. As a physics major, she was interested in studying somewhere that offered physics courses. She also wanted to do a language immersion program, so Chile was the ideal location, as it offered both. She chose to start with a summer program because she wasn’t quite confident enough in her Spanish, and she felt it’d be a good way to ease into an immersion program. Her intuition was right, and the organized layout of the program, filled with pre-planned trips and activities around the city and beyond, eased her into the unfamiliar environment and opened her eyes to all it had to offer.
“It’s an amazing country. It’s so varied—from the north with the desert all the way south to the sub-Antarctic environment,” she says. “And the people here are so nice.” She describes the summer program as a structured introduction to the country. “For all our trips, we had very knowledgeable guides. We got to see a lot of the historical parts of Santiago, some of the more educational side of things, and we took trips both to the northern parts of the country and the southern part. As Annie put it, it was like getting a sampling of everything.
semester program.
As expected, her second time around was a different experience. For one, she had more confidence going into it—both due to her improved language skills and because she was almost two years older. “It was a more hands-off semester,” she shares. “You get to see a very different side of the country and a different demographic of people that I think complements my first experience very well…it gives me a more well-rounded vision of what it’s like here.” She says that another bonus is getting to go through daily life with two different host families, exposing her to different experiences of family culture in Chile.
A notable difference between the two programs is that the semester program includes the pre-program, a three-week rural immersion designed for cultural and language acclimation. It’s intense, Annie admits, but in a good way. “I really loved it.” She shares how it brought their group together, bonding them for the semester ahead.
While they leaned on one another, the Notre Dame students also branched out, getting to know those in the Chilean communities around them. When describing social life, Annie says, “It's a healthy mix of both, having that comfortable space where we're all from Notre Dame and the US, but also branching out, getting to know the city, getting to know the people here too.” She also shares that there’s a buddy program (offered and organized by UC Chile, ND’s main partner university in Chile), where they’re paired with a Chilean student, who they can meet up for studying, lunch, or to explore new places.
Another way Annie got to meet Chileans was through rugby. When Felipe Gomez, director of academic programs and communications at Notre Dame Santiago, learned that Annie played rugby at Notre Dame, he put her in touch with the rugby coach at the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile (PUC), where Notre Dame students take classes for the semester. She was invited to practice with them, which led to a teammate asking if she also wanted to join a local club team. The rugby field where her club team plays, which sits at the edge of the city in the foothills of the Andes, has quickly become her favorite place in Santiago. “It's got this high vantage point where you can see over the city, it just has this beautiful view of everything.”
Beyond getting her connected with the school’s rugby team, Annie also credits the Notre Dame Santiago team with being a steady support system for students while they’re in Chile. “I talk to one of the Notre Dame Santiago staff probably every other day, whether it's about courses or asking for suggestions for things to do.” Even though the semester program is much more independent than the summer program, she says that it is reassuring to have a reliable resource in the ND Santiago team.
Annie’s choice to study abroad in Chile twice was unique, but her experience demonstrates that maybe, it shouldn’t be. “Because the two programs are very different, I've had two very different experiences of the country, which I think has been really good for me,” she says. She grew as a student, and her views and understanding of Chile as a whole also grew. The question is, would she go back a third time? “If there was a chance to do some of my future work or research in Chile for a bit, I would definitely take that opportunity.”
Learn more about study abroad opportunities in Santiago on the Notre Dame Santiago website.
Originally published by at santiago.nd.edu on April 29, 2026.