Scenes from the study abroad student art exhibition-Photo taken by Madison Bowden 27’
Three weeks ago, on September 11, the Art Department held an exhibit on the second floor of the library. This gallery featured artwork from students who spent their semester in France last spring. While enjoying charcuterie snacks, Covenant students gathered to appreciate their friends’ artistic talent and hear about their experience and insights from studying abroad.
Abby Rose ’25, Anna Mages ’26, Elise Cochran ‘26 and Grace Anderson ’26 studied and lived together in Aix, France. Rose and Anderson practiced photography while taking various Art History and French classes; Cochran and Mages took advanced painting and drawing classes.
Together, they traveled through French towns, countrysides and neighboring countries, experiencing cultures and worldviews that differ greatly from our little bubble atop Lookout Mountain.
Cochran and Mages often rode buses to locations for landscape painting, usually in farmlands near a chateau, in forests by rivers and of mountain ranges. At the chateau, they accepted painting advice from an eight-year-old girl.
“The mom was happy that her daughter could experience the same thing she did when she was growing up—seeing the painters come every fall and spring and getting to walk around and watch them paint,” Cochran shared.
Together, the four girls traveled to a jam-packed Athens, successfully viewing most of the major landmarks before heading to Santerini, an island in Greece. Here, they experienced a pre-tourist island and practically had the whole place to themselves.
“When you think of Greece—white houses, blue roofs—it’s Santerini,” Rose said. “It was the best trip ever, but it felt like we were living in an abandoned Greek theme park.”
Surprising to most is that traveling and living in Europe is similar to being in the United States. Not everything turns out the way you might expect. Bus drivers may get lost and turn an eight-hour trip into twelve hours with no air conditioning and toilets that don’t flush. Sometimes you’ll get caught in a rainstorm while picking up your to-go pizza, ruining your plan to have a nice, cozy evening at home with friends. And, at random times, strangers will try to talk to you about anime.
But in all the beautiful landscapes and exciting adventures, the most interesting experience was learning and growing in a foreign and secular context.
The first step was getting over the fact that they were Americans in France, where most people see Americans as annoying and dumb.
Courtesy of Grace Anderson ‘25
“Then, when they find out that you’re a Christian, they see you as stupid or silly,” Rose said.
They couldn’t have the same kinds of conversations that they can at Covenant, and sometimes that meant the conclusions drawn by their classes would feel empty and unfulfilling. The benefit of living with other Christians was that they could confide in one another and reach some of those conclusions together.
“We were having to learn how to describe our Biblical views—our faith—in non-Biblical terms.” Anderson said.
Mages shared that this was an opportunity to live out the Gospel in humility rather than evangelizing. It was a lesson that all Christians, especially those from sheltered communities like Covenant, need to learn before entering the secular world.
“We weren’t there to preach,” She said. We don’t always have to.
Leaving a community like Covenant can be jarring for many Christians, but for these students, it was both humbling and encouraging. It was a chance to listen rather than speak.
“To me, it confirmed so many of the things I believed, as opposed to ripping the ground out from under me. It was really the Holy Spirit working, and part of that is due to being at Covenant and the base that it has given me,” Rose said.
Scenes from the study abroad student art exhibition-Photo taken by Madison Bowden 27’
People have a perception that the experience of studying in a different country will help you learn a new language, become independent, well-rounded and cultured. And this is true, but it can also create more questions than answers.
“When studying abroad, you are just literally a regular person,” Rose said. “You so quickly get used to your beautiful and incredible surroundings, but it’s just normal life in a different place.”
No matter the location, you still need to learn and grow; you still live in a broken world in need of grace.
Most of the paintings featured in the gallery came from Venice, Italy, where Cochran and Mages spent a week working on a final project at the end of the semester. Some of the photography comes from Aix, Florence, and Berlin. All of the artwork represents only a glimpse of their real experiences—moments stuck in time, truly known only by those who were there.
We have the incredible opportunity to study in all sorts of cultures. Some students choose to go to Central or South America, some to Europe, and others find intercultural opportunities inside the United States. No matter the location, these trips can be life-changing experiences, and are best enjoyed with friends.
The thumbnail of this document belongs to Madison Bowden 27’