Basking in the sun on Spanish beaches, glimpsing the Mona Lisa in the Louvre or gorging yourself on sushi in Tokyo might all be compelling thoughts you have when deciding to study abroad. But what about the other benefits? The ones that don’t come readily to mind when you think about travel, but are just as important.
Whether to help convince your parents that studying abroad is a uniquely impactful endeavor or to get you even more excited about your own opportunities, this blog post will list some underappreciated benefits of studying abroad.
Resumé Building
Your study abroad experience is incredibly helpful for your resumé in a multitude of ways. On the most basic level, having a study abroad program as a part of your portfolio shows employers that you have a global interest, can adapt to new environments, possess a level of intercultural competence and employ high levels of independence.
However, one of the ways that most students don’t realize they can showcase their time abroad is also with interviews and writing samples. A plethora of stories and anecdotes about experiences abroad — even seemingly trivial things — are valuable illustrations of your curiosity and your abilities to adapt and overcome hardship. These are all attributes that employers look for.
New Friends
On the surface, “making new friends” might seem like a pretty obvious perk — of course you’re going to make new friends of your classmates. But consider all the other friends you could make along the way, including the ones that you don’t expect.
You never know if the barista at your morning coffee shop will become your new best friend, or if the street artist outside your apartment (whom most people pass as if they’re invisible) will engage in fascinating conversations with you. When you’re in a new environment, you get a chance to step away from the suffocation of routine and custom, opening your heart and mind to new friendships and opportunities.
Nowhere can this be better exemplified than in the host-family culture utilized by many study abroad programs. Talk to anyone you know who stayed with a host family, and you will realize that the bonds you make with host parents or “siblings-away-from-home” are lifelong.
International Living
Though it might not apply to everyone, many students have dreams or aspirations of living abroad. Taking a month or more to live somewhere new in the world, even if it isn’t the place you’ve always dreamed of living, is an invaluable tool in learning about how you function in societies that work differently from our own, and can be essential in determining whether or not living abroad is something in your future.
While the fast-paced adaptations that travelers need to make once arriving in a new country are thrilling and can help you understand more about how you adapt to change, you can also take a step back and evaluate the extent to which these new cultural customs fit with your desires for the future.
Academic and Career Opportunities
Circling back to resumé building: Not all the benefits of studying abroad come after you return. Studying at an international university could allow you to delve deep into your area of study with some of the most internationally renowned scholars.
Along with that comes the ability to build relationships with people who can become valuable mentors, recommenders and associates in the future. On the internship side of things, you have a great opportunity to break into the workforce of your choice and make connections with those who are at the forefront of the type of career you are interested in.
Hopefully, these ideas have given you something to think about and shown you a reason or two for studying abroad that you never otherwise considered. Obviously, there are countless others besides these, as well as the “obvious” reasons like traveling, sightseeing and generally getting to know a new part of the world and yourself.
As always, if you have any questions about the process, don’t hesitate to email educationabroad@austin.utexas.edu or come talk to our Peer Mentors.
Nate Heffron is an Education Abroad Peer Mentor providing support to students interested in studying abroad. Learn about this position and its services on the Peer Mentors Program webpage.
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