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Featured Schools Abroad:
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The Study Abroad Teacher Education Program at Charles Sturt University (CSU) offers students the ide... [more]
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The Copenhagen Business School gives students an opportunity to study international business, interc... [more]
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...and more
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Provides you with everything you need to know to find the career and college in the USA.
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Passport to Experience
Written by: Amanda Chaborek
In this day and age, competition for jobs is extremely tight. What are employers looking for? International experience. By studying abroad, particularly during graduate school, you are setting yourself apart from your competitors. Having international experience under your belt often tells people that you are adventurous, resourceful, and adaptable; diverse enough to work with and understand other cultures.
A number of graduate students feel that going abroad during this intense time of studying, working and writing a thesis is absurd. But take a moment to think of what going abroad can do for you in the long run. No potential employer is going to ask how many hours it took to complete your thesis. What they will ask is what you learned from your summer writing program in Madrid. Or your semester studying Art History in Rome. Or your Broadcast Journalism internship in London. You get the idea.
When I was seventeen, I got the itch to see something different and experience cultures that I had only read about in books. I wound up going to New Zealand for two months. I stayed on a Maori tribal land, lived with a host family and hiked throughout the North Island. The summer between my senior year of college and my first year of graduate school I went to Prague, Czech Republic to study film history and photography. I saw first-hand how years of oppression had affected people my own age and how much I took for granted in my own life.
This past summer, I took a group of students to London, Paris, Prague and Geneva, where they studied all aspects of communication in various professional venues. One graduate student's employer found the program so worthwhile he helped fund her trip. Shortly after I returned and started my summer internship hunt, I was overwhelmed with the number of questions regarding my experience.
Aside from being an incredible resume builder, going abroad can provide you with a new language, practical work experience and memories and friends you will never forget - like my e-mail buddy in New Zealand and my friend from Prague whose wedding I stood up in.
But most importantly, I became aware of the various cultures and people in this world. With the world marketplace converging, employers realize the value of global experience and your ability to adapt to new things.
Grad school can be the most stressful time of your life and I am not suggesting you go abroad for a year, every trip I took was less than eight weeks long. Short trips are not hard to come by-a simple Internet search will provide you with hundreds of options.
Clarify exactly what you want to gain from your study time abroad. Is it an academic goal or a language program? For some it's simply the immersion in another culture, while others go for a co-op or intern experience.
The primary place to start your search is with the study-abroad advisers at your college or university.
Determine what country, and kind of program you want to study in, and most importantly, the results you want to achieve while there.
Since you are a graduate student, your experience will be greatly enhanced because you have the maturity and knowledge to appreciate everything around you. I highly suggest you take the opportunity to "expand your horizons" while you have the chance. You will find that the more research you do, the more excited you will become at the thought of going abroad. So do it; you'll be glad you did.
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