Education Abroad Overview

Kate said if her Wi-Fi comes back on that she'll hop on if she can.

Katie's on tech support so she got us. She'll help monitor the chat and everything so we don't need to multitask.

Great.

Nice.

Good morning everyone. We're just going to give it a couple more minutes. See if anybody else joins us.

So we're just going to wait just another.

30 seconds or so. See if anybody else joins us and we'll get started.

Hi good morning everybody and welcome to engineering exploration days. My name is Claire Vallangeon, Advisor in chemical and biological engineering.

And.

One of my focus areas is helping engineering students to go abroad. So today we also have Michelle Haffner weathers. Give us a wave. Michelle and Katie Rodriguez give us a wave and Michelle and Katie of both studied abroad and they're both engineering students and will get to ask them some questions later on.

So CSU education abroad encompases all of the following. It encompasses studying abroad at encompass is doing research abroad internships and service learning. So education abroad encompases all of those different categories and one in five students at CSU has an education abroad experience.

So what would you gain from an education abroad experience? There are variety of academic career and personal benefits and education abroad experience can give you. It can prepare you to work in a global world. Expand your global mindset, gain adaptability, increased self confidence and flexibility and develop new skills to take with you after graduation.

It can challenge you to grow in new ways, like communicating in another language, interacting with people from different backgrounds, and dealing with ambiguity. It's a common myth. Education abroad can delay your graduation rate. In fact, a recent CSU study showed that students who had an education abroad experience graduated at the same rate, if not quicker than students who did not go abroad.

Watonwan can you go rum study all over the world? We have over 1000 programs in 80 countries and a cool thing is we actually have students have gone to all seven continents. There's a program in South America where you can do an excursion to Antarctica. In addition to all the different places students can go abroad in all terms.

Fall and spring. Academic year calendar year summer break fall break, winter break and spring break programs can be one week to a full year and everything in between. Basically, we can find a fit for any student, keeping in mind their location of interest. Academic focus on budget. At CSU, the majority of our programs are in non English speaking countries are many of those programs offer academic coursework in English.

For example, you could study business in Thailand or biology in Spain, all with an English curriculum.

As you can see, engineering students do go abroad quite good rates in 2018 and 1915.9% of engineering students studied abroad and the year before that. 16.9% of engineering students chose to study abroad. The top destinations for students over the years have been Ecuador, El Salvador.

The United Kingdom and China.

Where do you choose to study in one of those countries? Or might you choose to go somewhere different? What benefits do you think these students experience by going abroad that the rest of their classmates did not get? I'd love to see your answers in the chat.

In order to offer CSU students as many education abroad opportunities as possible, we have a variety of program models available. CSU exchange programs, CSU affiliate programs and faculty lead programs. Each of the programs we have offer a variety of experience, from housing, accommodations, classroom experiences.

Field work opportunities, internship placements and so on.

So I'm going to talk a little bit about some of the different types of abroad experiences you can have. So Swansea University is an exchange program. This is a great place to to study. It has an amazing College of engineering. As you can see it is right on. Swansea Bay are really beautiful location and the College of engineering buildings are actually just to the left of that.

Take white building on the left of the picture here. This is a semester program. It's located in Swansea. English is spoken but it's a completely different culture than living in the US.

Students receive help arranging housing either in residences on campus or University. Manage flats in the local area. It's popular with engineering students because of its course offerings and as you can see, the campus is right on the beach of Swansea Bay. The country has a distinct identity formed by the Welsh culture of wild coastline and mountainous terrain. It's a 2 hour train ride from London and it's more modern than the surrounding areas.

Providing an interesting contrast of old and new, the rest of Europe is affordably accessed via airports near Cardiff and Bristol, so in the I visited Swansea University many times in the middle of the town of Swansea, there is a Castle. There is amazing hiking, an amazing outdoor activities that you can do at Swansea University. In addition to it having a fantastic College of engineering.

The University of South Australia is another exchange program and this is also a semester program. the University of South Australia is located located in Adelaide, and that's the capital of the state of South Australia. Australia is also English speaking and has very strong course offerings in stem majors. Students can stain dorms, student apartments, or homestays. This is an urban campus so students could be taking courses in buildings throughout the city.

So students got a unique opportunity to really feel part of the city where they're taking courses. Adelaide is known as the 20 minutes city because it takes 20 minutes to get from the city to the holes or the beaches.

Next, I'd like to talk about the CEA engineering program in Paris, France. This is an affiliate program, so an affiliate is a provider that works with CSU and their approved to work with CSU to offer education abroad experiences.

This is a semester or summer program in Paris, France. Students really like to study with CA because of the excursions an on site support they provide. It's an interesting program because there are engineering courses on non engineering courses offered at the CEA Study Center which offers small courses in English in a neat area of Paris and the program is in Paris, which I think is a city we're all familiar with.

But this city has everything in terms of art museums and architecture and history. It has such a unique feel and rhythm, so to be able to take courses in this city and stay on track to graduate is really compelling for students.

The next program is a faculty like program. This is a short program that's offered at the end of the spring semester, and it's the prosthetic innovation program in Ecuador.

I.

This is led by Brookville and doctor Kevin Lear, and students are introduced to Biomedical Annovation's prosthetic design, fabrication function and delivery, and these are prosthetics that are offered to low income areas that may not have access to high tech hospitals and places like that.

So choosing your program when you're choosing the program to study abroad.

There are lots of things to think about, including cost, academic fit and your personal goals. All of these things are important and we can help you find a program that best fits your unique needs and interests.

And then the price range for programs.

When I think about how I make decisions in my life, one of my first considerations is cost. So it is important to think of the budget at the beginning of the planning process. This table shows the ranges in cost of attendance and the value of researching program prices. As you make decisions. Studying abroad doesn't always have to cost more than study on the CSU campus.

Be sure to compare budgets for the total cost of attendance. That includes tuition, books, housing, meals are first visas, etc. An estimated cost of attendance includes an average of all of the expenses per semester.

For a Colorado resident, for example, the estimated cost of attendance for one semester at CSU is about $14,000, so you can see on this table here that it's possible to find programs that actually cost less than being at CSU or about the same.

And when you're choosing your education abroad program, you will work with your work with your academic advisors. Or, if you're CBE student, you would work with me. You would work with the education abroad coordinator and you would also work if you were going on a faculty LED program, you would work with the faculty before we get to questions. I just want to introduce.

Gain the system is shall.

Michelle studied abroad and Edinburgh and spring off 2019.

Yeah, 2019.

Spring of 2019.

Michelle took courses towards her engineering degree while she was there and the person with her in the picture on the right is also a CBE student that Sydney.

And then we have some pictures here from Kate. Kate unfortunately is having Internet issues and isn't able to join us today, but Kate studied abroad in Valencia and Kate is a chemical engineering student too, and she was able to take courses towards her degree program and then also with this. Today we have Katie Rodriguez. Hi Katie.

And Katie is a civil and environmental engineering student. Yeah, who also studied abroad in the spring of this year? So spring of 20 and Katie studied abroad and Valencia, Spain as well. So now I would like to open it up for any questions anybody might have. I need to hop off the call just for a few minutes. So I'm going to ask Michelle Ann Katie to open this up for some Q&A.

Awesome, thank you clear.

Actually.

Cool, so Michelle, maybe we can just start a little bit by talking about our experience if you did.

Stayed with a host family or not. Kind of what classes you took in your program.

Sure, definitely. I think that's a good place to start, Katie. So yeah, I studied so I have multiple experiences I studied abroad in the normal semester in spring of 2019 in Edinburgh, Scotland in the United Kingdom, and so for me, like the transition and everything was pretty smooth. It isn't.

English speaking country. So all the classes were in English. Obviously it's a little different like the dialect, but very, very easy to manage.

Let's see. So then I also had an internship abroad the summer of 2019 in Germany and that was under the German government. So that was really different because I wasn't necessarily taking classes. I was doing research at a University Hospital in Germany and that was like really, really cool and really fun.

So OK, so you said kind of like how we got started with the process, right?

OK so I I'm a transfer student so The thing is I transferred in and a lot of my credits were kind of like mixed and matched everywhere. So I had some space and Luckily I was able to work with Claire, my advisor at the time and we notice that we could kind of move some of my classes like to different times in my 5 year program degree program and so that's what we did and we opened up space for the spring of 2019 for me to study abroad. Some of the classes I took was developmental biology.

Which counts as a technical elective for my bio medical engineering. I took a chemical engineering lab which counts as a lab that I would be taking right now if I hadn't studied abroad, and I'm really grateful for that, because obviously, like a lab has a lot of work. It's a lot of time and I my heart goes out to my classmates that are doing it online right now.

And then let's see I also took a history class which was really cool because I feel like sometimes in in the US at least, like it when I took history classes in high school, it was very like American like, cent centered. And whereas now I could see it from like a European standpoint. And I was like, really really cool. And then I also took a thermodynamics course, which so when you're in engineering, there are some classes that you can't really move to other semesters and like you have to take them because if not then you can't like move forward in the degree.

Program and for me that class was thermodynamics for that semester, but Luckily like Engineering is such a global thing, and many universities around the world like you're taking the same courses as they are a students in those universities. So if I'm taking thermodynamics in, you know the second year spring of my degree program, then there's certainly students who are taking thermodynamics in other countries around the world. And so I was easily able to take that thermodynamics class. It was very challenging.

From the University of Edinburgh is what lays like at the time it was like the number 20 University in the world. So it was. Yeah, I mean these faculty and the students were the best of the best, and so I feel really lucky that I was able to go and like interact with them and learn and everything. But it was challenging, but I feel like definitely like being at CSU like I was prepared like there wasn't anything that was like 2 too overwhelming or anything like that. My classes went smooth, it was hard, but the fact that I knew how to ask for help, how to.

You know, interact with my classmates and everything and made it so much easier.

Awesome, thank you Michelle. So I have been abroad twice with CSU. The first one was just a few months into my first year. I do quite a bit of traveling with engineering and construction related companies and projects abroad specifically with water treatment and disaster mitigation. After hurricanes and earthquakes and things like that. So I was itching to get out of the country and so my first study abroad experience was.

Thanksgiving break of my first year and it was a cultural leadership exchange program through the slice office, which is stands for student leadership involvement, community engagement, something like that. We love our acronyms Here at CSU.

Slice office offers a lot of short-term study abroad options. If you don't want to commit a whole semester or summer and that was great, we went down to the campus in Toto Santos, Mexico, and that's one thing that I love about CSU is we do have that Lee and Grant Mission, and because of that, part of that is Accessibility. So we do have multiple campuses and that extends down into Mexico and it's amazing. We partnered with the local University there and we have lots of dialogues.

About global issues that affect college students. Maybe in Colorado specifically or in their state, specifically an then how global issues that affect both of us and we had a person from each college representing so I was lucky enough to represent the College of engineering.

In this leadership exchange program, and it was an amazing experience. And then that following summer I also studied abroad in Valencia, Spain and I stayed with a host family. I grew up speaking Spanish, however, my dad is from Mexico, so Mexican Spanish is a little bit different than Spain Spanish. I've come to find out.

And it was a great experience. All kind of touch on some of mechanics questions for me. I'm from Bakersfield, CA, so paying out of state tuition it was actually cheaper to spend the summer in Spain than it was if I would have spent the summer in Colorado taking classes. So I took differential equations, which is the last math class after calculus three. Yes, there is more math after calculus. Three, when I came into engineering, I didn't know that existed.

But don't worry, it wasn't that bad. It was talking English that was really convenient. And I also took an upper division Spanish course.

So I also have a minor in International Development and taking the upper division Spanish course satisfied credits for my minor. So I was able to knockout two classes. I think 7 credits in six weeks, so that was really convenient. So like Claire was saying, there are different like University sponsored programs or.

A different study brought agencies that will.

Is a fixed cost for I went with you sockets, a international program and I was not paying like different exchange rates or different tuition for another University. My classes that I was taking was only with other study abroad students from around the world, so we were paying that program costs, not the specific University cost, if that makes sense. I don't know if that is the same for every program. I don't know if Claire Michelle you want to hop in on that.

Yeah.

That was my experience.

Yeah, so for most programs will be a fixed cost, right? Yeah, and you know before you go how much your program is going to cost, how much your housing is going to be, how much it's going to cost you to get there, and how much your visas will be. The part that you can't predict as well as how much you're going to spend while you're there and a lot of that is down to how much traveling you want to do.

And and that just come down to the rate of exchange. But I think a lot of students have a plan, and I know most of the students I've worked with that go abroad have a plan. They have a budget for how much they can spend while they're abroad, and if they choose to have you know Roman or top noodle or what's it called in Spain. I know it's top noodle in England and Scotland and it's probably called something different in Spain.

But if you choose to eat that every night so that on the weekends you can afford to travel within your budget, than that, that would be the way to do it.

The other thing I wanted to mention is Michelle Ann. Katie actually had really different experiences because Michelle went to a University in another country. So Michelle really experienced what it's like to learn as a student in that country, right? So she had the full experience of being a student on the campus at the University of Edinburgh. The full experience of what it's like to be a student at a University in the UK.

Where is Katie going to an affiliate program studied in a center not at a campus on my right Katie?

I studied at the University in Valencia, so we were in the classrooms on campus an our professors were from the University. However, I was only in class with other study abroad students.

With other study abroad students, yeah you won't think class worth with the native right. the Spanish students, so it's a different kind of experience doing what Michelle did than doing what Katie did. The nice thing about the doing an affiliate program where where they have a center is all of the support that they offer. While you were there, the cultural activities that they offer, the excursions and day trips.

Out that they offer so going on an affiliate program as is the whole deal you get in everything, including you know all the support that you would expect at your home University in terms of you know somebody to call if there's an emergency and things like that.

Michelle, for example, then had a different kind of education abroad experience and and in some ways more an experience that maybe took a bit more courage to do, which is sitting in the classroom with with students from all over the United Kingdom. Rather than sitting in the classroom with all American students. Not to say that Katie's experiences less. It's different and.

And it's just a different way to do it. Michelle came up with all of her own excursions. All of an all of her own things to do and her support was offered. I'm not sure what your support was definitely at the CSU level in terms of emergencies and what about when you're at Edinburgh.

Yeah, so I went through the affiliate or third party program API academic programs international. Yeah, so similar to kind of like Katy how she went through a program. It's kind of like they're like a medium for you to let for communication between you and the University, so I didn't really have to speak to like any admissions people API really did that all for me. It is a little bit more of a cost, but I'm also an out of state student so.

Even with that, like added program free on top of tuition, it was still cheaper for me to go abroad than to stay here for a semester.

So too, I hope that answers the question about yeah, about the exchange fees and stuff and then so I know there's another question that says did you have a student mentor ambassador that you had while abroad? So I don't really have like 1 designated student like mentor, but we had our like. I guess a group leader for this API program who was someone who just worked for the program. They were not a student but she she was. She's originally from the US but she had lived in the UK for several years.

Study there, got a Masters degree there so she like basically new like the city like in and out. Very well so she guided us through. But the nice thing was that it wasn't like mandatory to always be with that group or be with our guide. She was basically like. OK guys, here's a list of stuff. This stuff is really nice. This stuff is really nice too. This is fun. You know these places are really good and then just like have at it. You know go be free, do what you want to do. And so I really liked that. Like hands off approach but also.

Like there's help there if you want it and the excursions. Definitely a lot of fun so I was able to plan both our own excursions with like the other students in this API program who are also from the US, but at the same time we could plan our own stuff on the side with other British students and friends that we made. So it was like best of both worlds.

And I see we have another question about do you have to transfer credits or to CSU take care of that so I know I touched on that a little bit because I was talking about how my schedule was pretty flexible since I was a transfer student or I am a transfer student. So essentially you just have to make sure that CSU has access to those documents and essentially they'll take care of the rest. Just make sure that the Department and.

Your advisor or and the University itself are like in communication, and they're aware that you have these credits, but there's really no like heavy paperwork for you to do, so yeah.

But there's a. There's a really good process that we go through before you even go abroad to make sure that your the classes that you going to take a going to transfer back to CSU. There really isn't a question on whether or not their transfer, unless there's a last minute change in your class once you arrive.

Yeah, that's a great point. Like Claire said, the majority of the paperwork and all the work everything you need to figure out is before you even go abroad. So when you come back, it's a pretty smooth transition.

Alright Michelle, do you want to talk about where you in University housing apartments, host family? How is that experience?

Right, I forgot to mention that thank you, Katie. So like I said, I went through a third party affiliate program so they took care of our housing. So I guess the big difference between universities in the UK and universities here is that they don't really have dorms per say. I was in the capital Scotland, so it's a pretty big city of city life. You are doing a lot of walking like there's a lot of buildings and everything. So basically they have off campus flats, which I guess we would call apartments here and.

They put you into the place you into the flats. Sometimes I was lucky enough to be paired with another student in my program, but I think I think that's kind of rare at. Typically you're just placed with other British or international students who are attending the University and The thing is also the flats that they place you in that are kind of sponsored by the University are mostly for first year students, so it was kind of interesting and fun to see, you know, to be within that like very high energy first year student.

Environment again, but still it was really really cool to meet all different kinds of people. But yeah, I didn't. I don't think I had because I was going through the third party program. I don't think I had the option to do. Kind of like a host stay, but I've some friends who did and they really like that.

So Michelle, just a quick question. Then, if you were in a University sponsored flat, how is the dining Hall?

Alright, so that's something that I didn't partake in, so that's like an extra cost, right? So you have the option to do it, but it's definitely so. I did have one of my friends who who was there also from in this program. She did do the dining Hall option and she said it's very, very different from how the American universities are, how it's kind of like more buffet style here.

Over there is like it's not as big, and then I think there's like more limited options, so I didn't do that. I just kind of would get groceries and then kind of like Cook at home and try to save save money in that area so that I could do a little bit more traveling and Whatnot. But groceries are fairly cheap, like for my experience, so that was, yeah, I if I had to like recommend, I would say go with the like your own grocery shopping.

Awesome so I since I went through an affiliate program I was given the option of doing the University housing with other study abroad students or doing staying with a host family. So since I wanted to brush up on my Spanish, I chose to stay with a host family and it was an amazing experience. They didn't speak any English at all, so there were some days where I would just come home from class exhausted, but it was really awesome too.

Push myself in that area and really grow in my Spanish and I guess just people skills in general. Since you are staying with complete strangers. However, they were really close to campus so I got to walk to campus and the rest of the students were taking the transportation bus system which is super amazing in Europe. But yeah, it was a great experience. Lots of seafood 'cause we're in Valencia. It's right on the coast in Spain.

So my host family was always making my meals and I would eat with pretty much every meal. So that was really fun experience to just kind of become part of their family. Their son was away studying in the UK and so they wanted to get it an exchange student as well. So I was likely lucky enough to be placed with them and it was an amazing experience and whenever I was traveling on the weekends if we were staying in hostel we would.

Usually eat out, but if we were staying at like an air B&B or something like Michelle said, the cheaper option is usually always going and grabbing groceries.

Can you hear me?

OK.

Yes, 2122, so there are a few summer programs right now going on for 21. We are super hopeful that we have a new pre first year program that we're hoping to offer in the summer of 21.

And I believe education abroad office is tentatively planning for fall of 21 and we're hoping that spring of 2022, which is what current first years would be doing will be back on track and traveling back to normal by then.

That's really good to hear. Yeah, I had some friends who were studying abroad this past semester, the spring of 2020 and they did have to come home early. But but yeah, I know is kind of messy also, so I honestly don't know how the refunding process went in all of that. But I do know it depends on if you are going through a program, affiliate program or if you are doing like a direct enrollment so.

Yeah.

Uh huh.

Yeah, yeah, I'm not sure exactly what the details will be on that, but have you heard about our pre fetcher program the CBE pre first year program?

I actually have been. Can you tell in there, yeah?

You have and so we are.

This is the first time we've ever done this in chemical and biological engineering, but we're doing an education abroad experience that begins right before fall classes start and this class is going to cover CBE 101, which is the required first year class.

And it will be 5 days on campus and then eight or nine days in Copenhagen in the Netherlands and Denmark and then eight weeks one Class A week on return. So the focus of it is clean energy and biotechnology and Copenhagen is one of the leaders in Europe in those areas. And we're going to be visiting clean energy biotechnology companies.

And I'm just. I'm really excited that it's a faculty large program. So Doctor Respelled and I are the other leaders for this program, so I'm really excited and really hope that by the end of the summer will will be able to travel and kick off office your program.

That is so exciting. Oh my goodness, I love to hear that.

Now.

Yeah, yeah, it's going to be really cool.

Well, yeah, that is.

Yeah.

Yeah no. I'm also with you. I you know, fingers crossed that we can we can get back to all the the abroad stuff by the summer.

Yeah.

I hope so. Yeah, yeah, fingers crossed.

He

Are there any more questions in the chat?

if you have questions, keep them coming.

OK so I have a question, do you think these programs help you get a job faster after school or?

Is it more about personal experience?

While asking to the job, but then you 2 can speak to the personal experience.

I think having an education abroad experience on your resume shows an employer that you are super flexible, adaptable, willing to embrace change. It definitely gives you an edge on your resume. I believe when you're applying for jobs it also you know so many of our companies. Multicultural companies, global companies really looking for students that have that global.

Outlook and if you've had many abroad experiences or even one abroad experience, that's going to set you apart from the other applicants, it's going to show that you are willing to embrace the global culture and the global nature of business.

Yes, exactly so I'm actually looking into international engineering firms. And like Claire said, having these abroad experiences has definitely helped me to get those conversations started 'cause I am also like I said, have a minor in International Development so doing engineering abroad and in different countries is something that I'm super passionate about. That's kind of how I got started with engineering in 2014 after the earthquake.

In Haiti, I was helping build a retaining wall for an orphanage. There an I got sick with Cryptos Pyridium it's a water parasite and I was sick for about 8 weeks and my dad, who is a civil engineer, drew up some plans for water purification system and went back, installed it and so International Engineering is something that I'm super passionate about, so having experiences like this has definitely helped me guide. Kind of where I want to go within.

International engineering and really help jumpstart those conversations with those companies that do have offices in locations abroad. So this is definitely been helping a lot.

How about your personal experience with it, Katie, what do you think it is given you that you wouldn't have had had you, you know gone to college for four years at CSU and never traveled abroad.

I would say definitely the people skills. So like I said, doing a host day I showed up. The first day had to find where they lived. An had seen a picture of my host parents and that was about it. We were communicating through WhatsApp just about what time I would be there and then I met them and that's where I was living for the next six weeks. So that definitely helped me to build those interpersonal skills and conversation skills.

So it was really interesting and definitely helpful. I that was the first time I had been exposed to like Spain, Spanish in Spain. Culture. Like I said, my daughter is from Mexico and so I've been down to Mexico. I think 6 or 7 times and I spent a lot of time in Latin America and so Spain was a completely different experience for me. Lots of cultural differences, both, you know.

Even Foodand

Dancing? 'cause That's a huge thing in Latin American culture, and just the dialects like Michelle is saying. Even in English there are so many different things that we say an it was a huge learning curve 'cause I would say things that I grew up speaking in Spanish just slang terms and they would look at me like I'm crazy and had no idea what I was talking about. So it was really interesting and fun to kind of adapt that adapt to that culture and.

Learn OK how I speak is not how everyone else speaks, even though it's the same language, so definitely would not have gotten those skills an learn any of that in the classroom.

Thanks Katie, How about you, Michelle?

Yeah, so definitely. That's exactly what Katie said about the dialects like, Yeah, we're speaking English in the UK, but it's very different. There's a bunch of little small nuances and everything to the language that the British say or do that we do not. Here in the US, so it's really cool to just pick on the pick up on those little things and like, learn and expand your view. Like I said earlier, I mentioned this earlier. How kind of like get stuck in our little like American bubble here and don't realize that.

You know there's other countries in other regions that are doing things differently, but sometimes there's like a little bit more efficient in the way they do things, and so I really learned a lot about that in terms of like engineering, especially in the UK, an in Europe in general, and that really, really like. So me personally, if my goals after graduation are to go into research and like I was thinking about Graduate School, but once I went to once, I completed my semester in the UK, I completely was so inspired and motivated to pursue.

Like Graduate School degree, so my PhD specifically and I want to go back to the UK to do that because I just really fell in love with the way they kind of have this whole perspective on the pedagogy of just research versus learning and teaching. And all of that. So I just yeah, that really, really really impacted kind of like my goals. And then also, you know we have another question that says, how would you go about finding an internship abroad? So I'd like to tie those two questions together because I interned abroad in Germany.

The following summer that after I was in Scotland, and.

First of all, I guess I found it because it was kind of like kind of like very last minute and can very random. One of my friends who is also a CBE major chemical engineering major. He was really interested in doing this program for the German government is called like the DAD, another acronym, Deutsche academic, are I. Yeah, I'm not going to. I forget it, but he was really interested in doing it. So basically it's the German government. They fund British and American and Canadian students.

Every summer to go to Germany and partake in about a 12 week research internship at University institution. Or maybe a company who's sponsoring that one. And so I was like, oh, that sounds interesting. Sure, I'll go with you to the info session that CSU is hosting and I went and I was like wow, this is really cool. So I ended up applying with my friend Anna. Couple of our friends and ended up getting in. So that was like really, really yeah that would say there's just like.

Everywhere in CSU, like there's an opportunity. So whenever you hear like there's info session going on for this, or we're having a panel today for this, I would say just go if even if it's interesting to you in like the slightest capacity, just go because you never know, like how big of a door it'll open for you. So yeah, I did have that internship and that one was way, way I feel like I had to have a little bit more.

How is the courage to do it? Definitely, because Alan was very, very like you're on your own hands off like we will give you the money and will wait for you. But you gotta figure out how you're going to hear you gotta figure out how you're going to stay with you. Gotta figure out everything everything so that one was like a lot of fun. I think I learned like the most about myself in that one versus the UK. Although I did learn a lot about myself and and about University life in general in my semester abroad. But the summer abroad was really where I got to.

Like get a small taste of truly, truly being on my own. You know having this, you know job essentially where you get paid. Also, it's a taste of research, so a taste of what I would like to do after I graduate. And it's a whole other language, like I went in knowing absolutely no German. I practiced a little bit in the weeks leading up to it, but by the end of the summer I could understand it super well. I could speak in more or less, you know, just to get by and everything. But yeah, it was incredible. How much?

And just like I think I was there for 11 weeks in just 11 weeks, how much you kind of progress and adapt and learn is really, really amazing to see.

I know one of the questions here is, did you ever feel unsafe or really scared?

To be honest, no.

And it's it's really, you know, it comes down to like.

The policies in place and the type of environment that the I would say honestly, Europe.

Hose or holes in general compared to the US.

Just things like this, you know certain laws or just I also feel like just the cultural the social fabric that they have is just a lot more like I would say Rams take her around style. So it's very like I take care of my neighbor. I make sure my neighbors good if I see someone who needs help on the street I help them, whereas here I feel like it's very individualized obviously here. Also in the US it's very dependent about you know upon where you where you go. You know West Coast very different from East Coast.

Etc. But in Europe I feel like it's just in general, like I remember when I was going to to the UK, I was on a train from London to Edinburgh an I had two really big suitcases and I was trying to go up some stairs like really slow. You know just like and like I mean I could carry them. I'm 511 I'm you know I could very well carry my own bags but these two random guys who weren't even together they saw me and they were like no no let me help you and they carried my bags all the way onto the train.

They weren't even getting on that train and then I had same experiences like that in Germany. Like people will just will just help. And then same thing. Obviously like you know the drinking age over there is is lower, so more often more times. Often than not, you know the students who study abroad are able to drink legally over there and so you find yourself out late at night and you know it's really, it's really dead. There's not many. There's not much going on. Not many things are open except for you know, the pub or whatever that you were at.

And I never felt unsafe like walking back, even when I was by myself, I never felt safe walking in the middle of the city at night. Yeah, I would say I was pretty pretty good. How about you, Katie?

Yeah, it's a similar experience to Michelle. The I was in Valencia and it is a huge city, so even when I was walking home I of course you know general rules. Don't be by yourself. I tried to not be by myself, but the city is so alive at all hours of the night way past my bedtime that there were so many people all the time that I never felt unsafe. Even when those few times I did walk home.

Later by myself, everything is so well lit because I was in the city center and there's so many people all the time.

Past my bedtime. Like I said, those people in Spain can party all night and I just can't hang, but it was a really good experience. And then Jackie said, when did you start planning to study abroad? So I believe I started so I went over the summer and so I started January that spring semester right before I went to the study abroad office and I had talked to my academic advisor.

About kind of the different options and classes that I could take, things I can move around, and then I went and talked to the study abroad office. I met with their student ambassadors first, an kind of narrow down a region I also met with their academic advisors and said, OK, well I'm in engineering. So what are my stem related options that I have? And then they kind of laid out all the different programs. What I would be able to take and then I selected it from there and it was pretty easy since I.

Kind of knew what classes I would want to take abroad, and so they said here your options and everything was pretty smooth. Like I said, there's a whole study abroad office. Everything is very specialized there. People in charge of each region, so it's their job and their experts on all of the options in every continent or region that you could study abroad. So is pretty smooth.

Yeah.

When did we start planning for you, Michelle?

Yes, I was really, really eager to do it. I feel like so. Let's see I went or I officially departed in January of 2019 and I honestly think I started planning this semester before in like August or maybe even before that. I just know that probably honestly wouldn't have known so much or been so. I guess ahead of schedule with things if it weren't for you. Claire, being my advisor at the time, just knowing that it wasn't even an option for me to do that was really, really huge.

And so once we sat down for, you know, some once a semester advising appointments and we were like, oh, there's there's space. There's some flexibility in here and you can study abroad. And I was like, oh, say less you know so I really just started looking at programs and stuff. And the thing that also helps is that like we mentioned earlier, there's such a big study abroad presence at CSU. And then we have the entire office just dedicated to it. So there's students who have done things and gone to places that are studying the exact same things you are.

That you might not otherwise have known about if it weren't for these people in these offices who work, you know really hard to like. Pull this information together so that you have it as a resource. I I started really early like I said, so I think by November I was like pretty pretty like I had everything set. Think I bought my plane ticket. Everything was good to go. Just finalizing paperwork with my affiliate program, but I think even if I didn't start that early, I think I could still manage to get it done.

So yeah, it was pretty smooth.

Yeah, I think we started planning for classes probably.

A year before.

Yeah.

Right, we would sit down. We would sit down, look at the programs and started planning out what classes you were going to take a year before. Then you apply the fall for the spring program and then it's a predeparture meeting in October and finalize all your details in November and fly over in January.

Yeah.

So Jackie says, what advice do you have for someone considering going abroad?

Well, with so much.

Definitely like just plan out. You know what you what you need to get done. So I feel like there's you know it's like what you need to do and then what you want to do. So definitely like what you need to do is like you know your courses that you absolutely have to make sure that you take care of and then after that it's really about what you want to get out from the experience so you can, you know, just go to your go to your classes, you know, interact with the city, life, the students and everything and just have a fairly mellow experience.

Or you can pack your bags and travel and fly over to the next country every weekend. It really just depends what you want to do. So I would say just kind of reflect a little bit on what you truly want to experience and don't be afraid to ask. Like other students who have gone abroad, don't be afraid to ask the people in these offices. Don't be afraid to ask your advisors. Yeah, just be curious, I would say.

That's great, Michelle. Thank you. I would say just keep your mind in your options. Open. Like I said, I've spent most of my traveling time in Latin America and I was super set on going to Latin America, so when I had my meeting, I realized that that might not be my best fit. And so one of the Advisors said, well, how about Spain? They still speak Spanish, so you can get by easier. And I was like, Oh, I don't know like.

I had been to Europe once before and of course amazing experiences, but I was just really sad on Latin America for some reason. And then I started looking into the program more and start getting more excited. And then I finally committed to it and it was an amazing experience. So I would definitely say keep your mind open about.

You know, whatever, wherever you're supposed to go, it will happen. But yeah, definitely keeping your options open is good 'cause you never know what experiences could come from it.

Alright, I think we're we have a couple more minutes, so if there's any last minute questions.

Go ahead and put them in the chat, but other than that, thank you everyone for being here.

Thank you for being here. Thank you for stopping in to see us today.

And big thanks to Michelle and Katie for sharing their experiences. Really appreciate your time. Thank you.

It's always a pleasure.

Yeah.

I'ma go ahead and drop my email in the chat as well in case anybody would like to talk. I love answering questions about my abroad experiences because definitely like some of the most fun times that I've had so far in my life. So yeah.

OK, our participant has gone.

Yeah.

Alright.

And thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you so much. I appreciate both. Patty, it was really nice to meet you. You're wonderful.

Oh, thank you, yes well.

Thank you Claire.

Michelle, great to see you. I miss you.

Get the food too. I miss you too.

Yeah, I.

Very soon.

Yeah.

Yeah, I really miss you anyway.

It's OK.

Thanks very much. I don't know how to end this. Do I just on broadcast?

OK Alright.

Bye.

You can rest your day.

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