Anna Kronbeck ’25 | Hawley, Minnesota
Majors: Political Science, Global Studies
Minors: Spanish, Religion
Can you talk a little bit about why you decided to come to Concordia?
I was originally thinking of going to a big state school, so it’s a bit of a flip that I ended up at Concordia. What drew me here was the ability to play in music even as a non-major. So, I play bassoon in The Concordia Band. The community feels really nice. It just feels small enough that you feel you know people, but not too small.
What study away experiences have you had?
My first experience was a May Seminar after my freshman year. I went with The Concordia Band to Spain. It was a joint Concordia Band and Orchestra trip after COVID, so that was really fun. We worked with city bands and ensembles. We also did the cultural experiences too — visiting the important historical sites and current points of interest.
After my sophomore year, I went to Norway as a Peace Scholar in 2023 to study peace and dialogue. I also took a women and gender studies class while I was there. We were there for seven weeks. It was just a really cool opportunity to do an intensive study of peace and dialogue and, of course, to just be with a bunch of cool people in Norway during the summer.
In Fall 2023, I went to Ethiopia on a Justice Journeys trip with Pastor Kim. We looked at some local issues that are facing communities, especially marginalized communities. That was really cool. When people ask me about that experience, I don’t know what to say to sum it up. It wasn’t a super fun experience in the sense that we were covering difficult topics, but it was a very enriching and eye-opening experience. Formative is a good word. It’s hard to talk about it without going on and on about that experience.
In May 2024, The Concordia Band had its second international tour in Panama, which was kind of a flip from our Spain tour. We worked with a lot of middle school and high school bands and Indigenous communities. It was more of a cultural experience since it’s less familiar than going to Europe. It was a good chance to practice my Spanish. A lot of the students we worked with had never seen the instruments we were bringing. That was really cool to say, “Oh, this is the instrument I love. Here’s the first time you’ll hear it.” Then they showed us their instruments — a lot of pan flutes and percussion. Dance tradition is also a big thing in Panama, so seeing a lot of their native dance traditions was also really cool.
In Fall 2024, I studied in Santiago, Chile, for the semester.
How did you decide that Chile was where you wanted to study abroad?
Because I minored in Spanish, I knew for sure that I wanted to go to a Spanish-speaking country. I feel Latin America is so underrated. Most of our students end up going to Spain, which is also really cool. I wanted somewhere that felt less familiar and was more culturally challenging. There’s only a few study away programs in Latin America, but this one just fit really well with the requirements I needed for my political science major, since I’m trying to pack in two majors and two minors.
I hadn’t learned much about Chile before, other than it’s the longest country and that everyone knows about its geography. I really ended up loving how diverse the landscape is. You can go from the desert to the beach to the mountains. It’s everything you could want to see.
Do you have a favorite moment from studying abroad?
I probably had some of the coolest moments in Panama. I felt like it was a good culmination of a lot of the studies I’ve done here. I was able to apply my studies outside of the classroom, which was good in a challenging way. A lot of cross-cultural moments happened there too, and I was able to test the skills I’ve gained in talking to people with different backgrounds and in different cultural contexts. In one of the Indigenous communities, the kids also couldn’t speak Spanish, so I couldn’t even test my Spanish skills. But the bassoon makes really funny sounds, so I was demonstrating all the funny sounds for them and we could still connect over small things like that.
While studying abroad in Chile, I was able to travel to a lot of places that had been on my bucket list since I was really young. Places like Machu Picchu, Easter Island, and Rio de Janeiro. So, not all within Chile, but it was so cool to have access to those areas.
What’s something you’ve learned as a result of your travels?
I feel the way you learn the most is just by listening and watching. You know, the interaction part is also really important because that’s how you’re going to listen and observe but, at the same time, you can learn so much by just sitting back and taking in everything. Stepping back and taking it all in helps you be in the moment but also learn a lot more than if you were the one doing the talking.
What would you say to someone who’s considering a study away experience or maybe has some reservations?
One of the challenges is deciding where you’re going to go. But I’ve never talked to someone who studied away and said that they hated the location. You end up falling in love with wherever you go in different ways. There’s no wrong choice in deciding where you’re going to go.
But I think, honestly, some of the reality of it is that it’s going to be scary and uncomfortable and you just have to embrace it. When I landed in Chile and was trying to navigate everything — I was like, “What am I doing?” But then you do the thing and you can be proud of yourself afterward. Even though it was really hard and uncomfortable sometimes, embrace it and go forward.
Being an engaged citizen of the world starts with one person.
What do you love about being a Cobber?
I think the Core requirements are a fundamental part of our liberal arts education, and I’ve found that it’s so important. Comparing the kind of education I get at Concordia versus what you might get somewhere else — it’s so all encompassing. We kind of make fun of becoming responsibly engaged in the world (BREW-ing), but I think the older I get the more I’m like, OK, they’re on to something. Being an engaged citizen of the world starts with one person, and Concordia teaches us how to do that.
Do you have a favorite class you’ve taken?
Any of Dr. Mocko’s classes. She approaches really difficult topics in a way that you can approach them even if you don’t have a previous understanding of them. She really pushes the boundaries of our assumptions about what it is to be a person in the world, especially in her Into to Interfaith Studies and Religion in the Post-Colonial World classes. They really push you to think about the world in different ways.
What are your plans after graduation?
This September, I’m going to the University of Glasgow in Scotland to study migration, global migration, and social justice. It’s a one-year master’s program.
How did you decide that’s what you wanted to study?
I originally wanted to go to law school, which is why I started with political science at Concordia. I got involved on the mock trial team and the Pre-Law Society at Concordia. They were both good experiences, but they serve their purpose of showing you if you want to do it or not. So, I was like, “Oh, maybe this isn’t what I want to do.”
My First-Year Seminar was about immigration with Dr. Lisa Twomey. And ever since that first class, that’s become an interest of mine. We worked with English language learners in the community, and creating that personal connection was really engaging for me. Throughout my four years, I’ve worked to make migration a topic wherever I can within my studies. There are not many migration studies programs in the U.S., so I started looking abroad. My search narrowed down from there — I don’t speak French, my Spanish is decent but not good enough for a master’s program. Then, I liked the appeal of a one-year master’s program. And how can you say no to Scotland?
Published June 2025