Growing up in New York City is like growing up all over the world. I can hop on a train and end up in Korea or India or Italy. At such a young age I was exposed to so many cultures and languages and I was absolutely fascinated. Although NYC allows me to experience a multitude of cultures, it is not the same as traveling and psychically being in another country. I remember watching this show called “The Suite Life on Deck,” where these high school students would travel all over the world via cruise and attend school at the same time. That piqued my interest in studying abroad. Earlier in the year, a friend of mine studied abroad in Spain, Turkey, Italy and France and she told me that it was one of the best experiences of her life. From that moment, I started looking into Baruch’s study abroad programs.
My friends and I attended a foreign language study abroad funding information session on October 12 during club hours. They spoke about different scholarship opportunities for foreign language learning and the application process. I learned about how these programs can get competitive and how there a few restrictions on them. There are many programs such as the Boren program which works with the Department of National Security and the Critical Language Scholarship which is a program of the U.S Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. At the information session, there was an alumni from the Boren program who shared his experience with the program and help shed some light on the application process. Going to this session really helped to inform me about the options that I have.
I want to study abroad. Everyone that I have spoken to has said that it was an amazing experience and that I should go for it. Going to Baruch and commuting from home isn’t the ideal college experience. If I do study abroad I hope it adds to my college experience.
