Taking a Leap of Faith

Thinking about studying abroad? Helene did and she absolutely loved it! Here is her study abroad story:

Studying abroad always is alluring to college students. The idea of experiencing another culture and seeing another corner of the world seems so exciting. However, many students dream of studying abroad but rarely make their dreams a reality.

As an engineering student, I felt there were limited study abroad programs available for me, especially since I had a very strict class schedule I had to abide by. During January of my sophomore year, I made the split decision to study abroad in Greece for 6 weeks through a program called Global LEAD. I chose to apply to this program because it wasn't offering technical courses in a foreign country, rather offering leadership and service learning, two classes that were directly applicable to anything I chose to do in my engineering career. I received notification a few weeks later that I was accepted into the program, and my preparation for the unknown began!

I began my adventure in Athens for 3 weeks completing service in refugee and immigrant centers. In addition to the service, I was able to visit the Acropolis, one of the most iconic beginnings of modern civilization, and I was able to immerse myself in local culture by becoming friends with the locals. 

We continued on to Crete and Santorini where we completed our leadership courses. In the islands, everywhere you looked seemed like a postcard. I bungee jumped in Corinth over the Corinth Canal, watched the iconic Santorini sunset, hiked a 17.8 km gorge leading to the African Sea.

Of all of the split decisions I’ve made in my life, studying abroad will never be one of those moments, and I strongly encourage every student to study abroad if they’ve ever even briefly wondered what it is like in another country.