World-Traveled Pioneer
From the Pyrenees Mountains in Spain to the beautiful scenery on Lake Como in Lecco, Italy, Olivia Scheberle ’19 has seen more of what this world has to offer than most adults, and she’s only 26.
You could trace Olivia’s zeal for travel back to her days as a transfer student at Duchesne. When John F. Kennedy High School closed its doors after the 2016-2017 school year, Olivia found herself looking for a new school. She didn’t look for long.
“I shadowed at Duchesne, and I just remember leaving and thinking ‘that’s my new high school,’” she said.
To her and the other Kennedy students who made the transfer, Duchesne and Kennedy shared a similar feeling of community.
“Everyone was so welcoming, and things worked out perfectly. The new and current students had a seamless blend.”
While at Duchesne, she wanted to get involved as much as possible. She played softball, tennis, and was a member of the 2019 girls soccer championship team. She participated in plays and became one of the first leaders of Jogues House in the new House Program.
After discovering an interest in architecture during a drawing class, Oliva decided to pursue it as a career after graduation through a five-year accelerated master’s program at Drury University, double-majoring in architecture and Spanish.
“I loved all the possibilities with architecture,” she said. “All of it, from city design and urban planning to community centers to public parks and conservation work.”
Her degree required time studying abroad, and it’s here where her journeys really began. In the spring of 2022, she studied in Paris and, before long, had visited eight other European countries.
“Before that, I had only left the country once to Honduras to visit a friend,” said Olivia, “It made me realize I want to keep doing this. I’m not done.”
That summer, she studied in Costa Rica and lived with a host family while taking an immersive Spanish class. Afterward, she applied for and was accepted into a program teaching English at a preschool and primary school in Madrid, Spain.
In addition to her studies, Oliva learned quite a bit about travel, such as Europeans love to try to guess where you are from, you experience more culture staying at local hostels or bed and breakfasts rather than western hotel chains, and it’s best to shop at local shops to invest in the community.
It’s all a part of her philosophy that travel is much better than tourism. To travel means you learn some of the language of the place you are visiting, and understand the people who live there on a more personal level. That’s how you make good friends from all over the world.
“I think people get a well-rounded sense of empathy when they travel,” said Olivia.
She’s found something to love in every place she's visited, but if pressed, she can narrow down her top three destinations.
Olivia’s Top Three Favorite Places She’s Been (so far)
and Why
1. Budapest, Hungary — The amazing architecture. It’s got beautiful buildings on either side of the Danube River.
2. The Pyrenees Mountains in Spain — They’re dotted with small villages of maybe 100 people. The landscape is stunning.
3. South of France — Consists of small, fairy-tale-like towns throughout the French countryside. The people are so incredibly nice.
For current Duchesne students considering travel, Oliva has one piece of advice: “Do it!”
Studying abroad is a great place to start.
“Professors organize everything,” she said. “You just get the scholarship to go, or pay them. You get experience without being the only one responsible for everything.”
For students who would like to travel before college, she says you can’t go wrong with starting with Europe. It’s less of a culture shock, and it’s easy to see a lot in a short amount of time.
Olivia thinks travel is important to understanding others in our social media, online-heavy world.
“I think it’s really important to understand where people come from. Other cultures, economies, governments,” she said. “It gets you out, meeting real people, making real connections.