Did you know that some of your CUWAA professors are also Study Abroad alumni?
The benefits of a Study Abroad experience are boundless! Studying abroad gives you the chance to flex your problem-solving skills, embrace new experiences, and harness the power of real-world learning.
No one knows this better than the CUWAA faculty and staff who opted for their own Study Abroad experience. CUW has had several of its faculty and staff study abroad, some multiple times. This series will give you a glimpse at a few of them. Click here to read more.
Study Abroad to Australia
Kyle McCarragher, Resident Director of Coburg, reflects on his study abroad to Australia:
Studying abroad was one of the best decisions I ever made in college. While the thought of spending a semester away from the familiar, friends and family, the opportunity to truly branch out and grow well beyond my comfort zone was too good to pass up.
As luck would have it, when I arrived in Melbourne, Australia, I ended up meeting someone else from Wisconsin- she was attending UW Stout. We quickly hit it off and met regularly at the university (we attended La Trobe University in Melbourne’s Bundoora suburb). It was great to develop a new support system away from home. Going on excursions with other international students at the beginning of my time helped me connect with other students navigating similar things as I- dealing with homesickness, learning how to navigate a different culture, a different educational system, to name a few. But the friendships I made with these individuals as well as my Australian flat mates helped me feel right at home. We cooked weekly dinners together, attended the Hunger Games premiere, cheered for our favorite Aussie Rules Football Team (Go Hawthorn Hawks!), shopped the city center, traveled over breaks, and ultimately learned more from one another in the process.
My advice or recommendation to anyone thinking about studying abroad? Don’t even think about it, just do it! Seriously. Studies show that students who study and travel abroad for any duration of time gain so much in the way of confidence, resilience, and appreciation for those around them as well as increase acceptance towards those with different worldviews. Our world is global and you learn the most by being immersed in the unfamiliar. The opportunity to engage and immerse yourself in an international educational opportunity is such a powerful thing; well worth the financial investment. Your experiences will stay with you for a lifetime; there is little, educationally speaking, more powerful than that.
Want in?
For more information on Study Abroad, visit www.cuw.edu/studyabroad to learn more. CUWAA students are traveling to Australia, Belize, Germany, and Greece this summer.