With my previous ventures around the world and especially my recent trip abroad with my CAMS 25 class over spring break, I would like to discuss what travelling and studying abroad can do for a student in college. I am sure that many of you reading this desire to study abroad at some point before graduating, and I really hope that you will have the opportunity. Even just travelling can provide one with worldly experiences and help build one’s character, but studying abroad adds even more benefits to one’s life.
By visiting other places, one receives a better understanding of the world around them. By witnessing and living in the ways of other cultures, one gains a cultural appreciation of that country and further creates connections with the way that their own culture operates back home and therefore how their global comprehension of culture operates. I believe it is incredibly important for everyone to be able to experience the diversity of the world through culture, language, music, and more and travelling has proven the most essential way of doing this within my life span.
When abroad, one might not be hearing the language that they speak back home. By attempting to practice or learn another language while in a foreign country, one can much easier learn and grasp the information necessary to communicate there. In doing this, the appreciation of language and the strengthened communication skills gained greatly impact a person and therefore their surroundings as well.
Something that I am able to work on while travelling is my sense of direction. I am very poor with understanding my location at times, and especially when driving. By navigating new places abroad, I exercise this sense. Forcing myself to remember where I am and to remember what streets head where without the use of a map greatly assists me in location memory when I return home.
Finally, and probably most importantly, studying abroad or travelling the world allows one to create unique and lasting friendships with even the most unlikely of people. Because one meets so many different people while visiting other places, they are forced to interact outside their normal social circles. And, when travelling with a group, the same thing is arranged (except the variance in nationality). Learning to cooperate and form bonds with people of all walks of life is a quintessential skill that one needs in applying for and working a job as well as just socializing in their daily life.
Of course, everyone’s experiences in visiting new places will differ, however, much is always learned and gained. With travelling comes the exchange of information, which can lead to many great possibilities in any person’s life.
Traveling is so important! I think Penn State does a good job advocating for travel and stressing the impact it has on our lives at this point. I love taking the opportunity to travel anywhere, even if it be one state over because I think seeing as much of the world as possible is very valuable.
I would love to study abroad! It sounds like such a great experience and here in college there is a world of opportunity. I like your point about travelling to help with a sense of direction because mine is severely lacking. I often get in a car, zone out, and just suddenly appear at my destination, so I end up not knowing the way to get there when I’m on my own. So this is my new excuse to travel.
One of my goals is to study abroad before the end of school, which I actually am going to do this summer! Traveling is a goal of mine and I hope to continue traveling after college too.
I love traveling—but have limited experiences outside of the country. I am going to Tanzania for a study abroad this summer, which should be an interesting experience. Best of luck in your future travels abroad!! I’m sure they will influence your life in the ways you mentioned.