Study Abroad to Finland/Estonia!

For my STEP Signature Project, I studied abroad in Finland and Estonia for Public Health. I was out of the country for two weeks, and along the way I learned about different health and education systems, experienced different cultures and languages, and made friends for life!

I feel like this trip changed my life in so many ways, both personally and academically. I had never been on a plane or been out of the country before I was given the chance to study what I love outside of the US. It was kind of scary but also amazing to be able to learn about another culture and the type of healthcare provided to their citizens, and how to bring that back to the United States with ways to improve our current system. I learned about Finnish and Estonia cultures, especially since I have never traveled outside of the US, and learned some of their values and mannerisms that I still use!

Since this was my first time travelling on my own, I also grew a lot as a person. I was able to take my first steps as an adult and be independent as a student and a traveler. I also began to learn more about what I want to do and what I want to study, which is important as a college student. I also learned about finances and how to keep track of my money, especially while in a foreign country.

I think one the major factors that lead me to study abroad and have that transformation came from my STEP advisor, who told us to, “Choose a project that is something that you’ve always wanted to do, and will make you happy”. I’ve always wanted to study abroad, so I began to look into programs, and ended up falling in love with the trip that I went on, and I am extremely happy with my choice.

For the STEP project, we were required to attend 3 different kinds of information sessions/workshops throughout the year, and one I went to was about study abroad programs that dealt with public health. I have always been interested in global public health, and I knew that being able to study abroad would give me the firsthand knowledge about what to expect in a trip, and I knew that studying abroad would be the right choice for me. I also received a lot of report from my STEP advisor and the Office of International Affairs in applying to study abroad, and how to properly spend my STEP funds.

I think this STEP project had a great effect on my academic goals as well, because I was able to study global health directly, not just through a textbook, and I learned about what global health issues I feel most strongly about, and what I can do to help reduce and eliminate them. This trip also solidified for me that studying public health was the right choice for me, and something that I have an immense amount of passion for.

Overall, I think that this transformation was significant to my life because it taught me how to be more independent, helped me study what I love, and how to budget a trip. All of these are important because they not only help me to be a better student, but will help me to be a more successful adult after college. The firsthand knowledge that I received while studying abroad about public health has helped me to think about my plans after graduation and what I want to do about helping decrease health disparities in not only the United States, but globally. Also, while in Finland we were connected with a student who graduated from Ohio State and is now studying for her Master’s degree in Eastern Finland, and I have also taken great interest in applying to get my MPH from the same institution.

I am so thankful to have been given the chance to participate in the STEP program and being able to grow personally and academically!

I also created a blog about my trip (I tried to keep up with it, but was having too much fun to complete it!) : kaylagoestofinland.blogspot.com