Over Spring Break, several MSL students traveled around the country and the world as a part of one of two immersion-style classes offered to Northwestern Law MSL students: the Entrepreneurship Team Project and one of several International Team Projects. Read about MSL Student Lauryn’s experiences on the ITP BeNeLux trip below!

The International Team Project is a student-run and student-initiated course, where we learn about the role of law and legal institutions, as well as the cultural, political, and economic systems in a specific region of the world—in my case, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg. Our course was comprised of semester-long research, an intense field study in the BeNeLux countries, and a final group project. During my ITP experience, I had the chance to travel to Belgium and the Netherlands to complete a project exploring the Global Data Privacy Regulation of the region, in relation to personal health care data.

The BeNeLux ITP is designed for students to travel to Luxembourg, Belgium and the Netherlands. Some members of our class left for Luxembourg for the first two days of our ITP experience, while a couple of students (and I) headed to Brussels during that time to conduct some early interviews and familiarize ourselves with the city. This was a wonderful decision because we had the chance to explore the city a bit and conduct interviews before the larger group arrived. I was surprised how small Brussels is! After only a few days Alyse ( another MSL student) and I felt completely comfortable walking around. The city was very diverse, and I was happy I had the chance to practice my French, as well.

Our group stayed in Brussels for two days and then traveled as to Amsterdam. During our bus ride, we made two day-trip stops in Bruges and Ghent, two smaller cities in Belgium. Unfortunately, it was raining that day so we did not have the chance to explore the city much. But we were lucky to find loads of specialty chocolate shops.

Once we arrived in Amsterdam, I knew that this was going to be one of my favorite cities. Amsterdam is a restless city filled with vibrant people and amazing food. I would definitely recommend renting bikes and soaking up the city. Be sure to take a camera for plenty of photos!

In Amsterdam we also had the opportunity to go to the Anne Frank House. Visitors are guided through the house via individual audio players. There were about sixty people in the house at one time, but it was completely silent. The experience is beyond words, but I am very humbled that I had the opportunity to experience a more intimate version of Anne Frank’s story.

One MSL student, Janessa, was finishing her ITP trip in Portugual and had a layover in Amsterdam during my last night there! It was wonderful to meet up in the city for dinner and talk about our experiences on the trips!

The most rewarding part of the experience was getting the chance to interview amazing individuals from other countries. As an MSL student, we already have great exposure to new and insightful perspectives of our professors; however, having the chance to speak with lawyers, researchers, and professionals from around the world was exciting and gave me a new level of understanding of the topics I studied in class.

I definitely recommend doing ITP in the MSL program because you get to travel with your classmates, and I loved getting to know JD and JD/MBA students. ITP is also a chance for you to choose an independent project and immerse yourself in field research.

P.s. The Belgian waffles were amazing! I am positive that I had one everyday during the trip!