Trinity Students Embark on Eye-Opening Trip to Iceland

As legend has it, the Norse god Odin gave up an eye to drink water from the frigid well of eternal wisdom.

An eternity later, Rowan de los Reyes '28 props himself precariously on a pickaxe, suspended at the jagged edge of a melting glacier, ash strewn around the ground at his feet, dipping numbly into a shimmering stream for a drink. At the glacier of Sólheimajökull, or "Home of the Sun," Rowan's teeth chatter, but both eyes stay wide open.

This was, Rowan says, "the best water I've ever drank, before or since."

Rowan is one of 20 classmates freshly back from a two-week study abroad experience in Iceland as part of the course "Iceland: Its Unique Geological, Economic and Cultural History." The trip is the fourth of its kind in Trinity's history and is part of Trinity's Beyond the Classroom program, which gives students who might not be able to dedicate a whole semester to study abroad the chance to immerse themselves for a shorter period.

While the experience might not promise wisdom on a cosmic scale, these two weeks are just enough of an opening for tectonic plates to begin shifting in each student's life, opening new paths and perspectives.

Led by Economics Professor Maria Paganelli, Ph.D., and accompanied by Environmental Studies Program Director Gregory Hazleton, Ph.D., the students made the journey to the vibrant landscape of Iceland in May, after a spring semester of learning in the classroom about its economics, geology, literature, political system, and native culture. The course was developed by Paganelli, Diane Smith, Ph.D.(Geosciences, Emeritus), and Les Bleamaster, Ph.D.(Earth and Environmental Geosciences), for whom Hazleton filled in on the trip due to a health issue.

Headlining the Iceland trip was an in-person rendezvous with Iceland's president, Halla Tómasdóttir, elected in 2024 on a platform of sustainability and societal well-being. Across all four Iceland trips, Trinity students have had the opportunity to meet with Iceland's sitting head of state, along with visits to the country's Parliament and Central Bank.

With many students feeling burned out from politics at home in the U.S., sitting down with Tómasdóttir for small snacks and personal conversation was a welcome change of pace.

Fazeleh Mirghassemi '27, an accounting major with a passion for finance and economics, even got the chance to snap a quick video with the president. "She told us that Iceland runs on three types of power," Mirghassemi says. "Geothermal power, girl power, and community power. Talking to her really inspired me, like, 'Man, we need to look out for each other back here in the U.S.'"

Tómasdóttir's homeland is an epic backdrop for the course, which covers Viking mythology and sagas, and the history of the country itself, all the way from Iceland's settlement in 874, to the founding of the world's first parliament at Thingvellir in 930, where the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates are pulling apart. The course continues through the World Wars, when Keflavík became a major U.S. hub during WWII, with the city now home to Iceland's International Airport, and the global financial crisis of 2008, explored through firsthand perspectives at the Central Bank.

Landing at the airport in Keflavík was an eye-opening experience in a way the classroom just can't replicate.

"In the summer in Iceland, the first thing you notice, besides the cold, is that the sun is out all night," Mirghassemi says. "This is a place I was, one minute, watching on T.V., marveling at all the scenery of volcanoes and glaciers, and wondering how I would ever go there?"

Standing on that same glacier, Betsy Hammer '27, an environmental studies and urban studies double major with a passion for sustainability, says she felt a newfound confidence in herself.

"Early Icelandic settlers really feared these glaciers, and standing there, I could completely understand why," Hammer says. "I felt a lot of peace in that moment because I realized that if they could (survive) in one of the hardest countries to live in, so can I."

Each of the students has returned to life in the United States feeling renewed. Perhaps by the simple disruption of routine, or perhaps there really is something special in the glacier water.

For Hammer, the trip reinforced that despite the vast differences between countries, people are often united by the same hopes and fears.

"Being in Iceland made me realize that even though every person experiences life differently, we are still human and so much more connects us than divides us," she says. "America is almost completely different than Iceland, but we find joy in the same things."

Rowan says he's in a quieter state of mind. "I feel both physically and emotionally refreshed," he says. "On many of the hikes, I did it got so quiet that the only noise I heard was my own breathing. I've never experienced such … quiet like that before."

And Mirghassemi, who admits to having a "terrible sleep schedule ever since I was a kid," says something about the never-setting summer sunlight has given her an unexpected gift.

"Going to Iceland fixed my circadian rhythm or something," she says. "By the second it hits 11 p.m., I'm out."