Reflection Post #1: Education Abroad Expo

For my academic event requirement, I decided to attend the Education Abroad Expo at the Ohio Union on September 4th.  Although my first major is German and my minor is International Studies, being new to Fisher with International Business as my newly adopted second major, I realized I wanted to find an effective way to incorporate my love for traveling and learning/utilizing global languages into a more professional setting.  However, before attending the expo, I was pretty clueless in terms of what programs existed and which of those had the possibility to cater to my specific majors, minors, availability, and interests.

The Education Abroad Expo can definitely seem a bit chaotic and overwhelming at times.  However, the Fisher Abroad table did a good job of educating me about my options.  After talking to a representative for a while and gaining a good understanding and overview of what Fisher offers, I was also given a helpful pamphlet recapping the information to take home.

Although all of the programs definitely seemed tremendously beneficial and fun to experience, one program stood out to me.

This one program was the Strasbourg Summer Exchange program for the summer of 2019.  Not only is it stationed in France (I took French in high school and am currently attempting to regain my proficiency in it), but Strasbourg is located very near to the German border, as well.  I feel like this position would be ideal for my studies because I could have the opportunity to travel between both France and Germany, as well as other European countries.  In addition, Strasbourg is home to the Council of Europe, the European Court of Human Rights and the European Parliament, which bring in a political, global aspect to the city.  If accepted, I would attend the Ecole de Managment Strasbourg for roughly four weeks at the beginning of summer.  I would also be expected to take the following courses while abroad: European Integration (HIST 3254), BUSADM 5797 as IB elective, and French Course (BA 5797).

Having already studied abroad in Germany in high school, I think I could really take advantage of this opportunity abroad.  Since I would already understand the drastic changes and sacrifices often necessary to make while going abroad, this transition would maybe be much smoother for me than others.  However, I definitely would still get homesick being away from home for a month.  However, the independence that is granted as an exchange student is so important to personal growth and linguistic improvement.  Although my the majority of classes would be in English, I would like to definitely attempt to see as much of the area as I could without relying on French speakers to translate for me.  Therefore, one goal of mine would be to get by speaking solely French while outside of the university and in situations that occur to me.  I am so excited to see if I end up doing this program or one similar!

I am so happy that I had the opportunity to attend the Education Abroad Expo, which has opened me up to new programs.

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