Posted By: Career Enrichment Network
Photos and content contributed by Brisa Marie Smith Flores, last spring while completing her semester in Spain.
Brisa Marie Smith Flores, triple majoring in Art History, History, and Global and International Studies with minors in Latin American Studies, Latino Studies and African American Studies, spent last spring in Seville, Spain. Read more about Brisa’s experience below!
What is unique about this program, CIEE- International Business and Culture program in Sevilla, Spain, and more specifically CIEE is the ability to really create and customize your study abroad experience. Through this program I am able to participate in many excursions to other countries and cities such as Rabat, Morocco, and Cadiz, Spain. In addition to the trips, CIEE IBCP students also have the opportunity to find internships and interact with companies while abroad if you so choose. The staff and faculty are extremely helpful and open to ideas, which was extremely important to me because I am not a business major, I am more interested in the culture and language. This type of openness allowed me to volunteer at local schools and teach English to primary and secondary school age students. This interaction alone not only helped me with my language skill but also gave be a completely different understanding about the Spanish culture, education system and family structure. It is amazing. Essentially anything you can dream of can be found here. In fact the first month I was here, I participated in Silk Aerobics course!
I teach 16, 15, and 11 year old students in English Conversations, I also tutoring English outside of the school. I also have the opportunity to work with one of my professors abroad with developing an international sports conference that will be held in the next two years.
I am still trying to find what I want to “be when I grow up” but study abroad has changed how I view my future. Before studying abroad I thought living abroad was strictly a retirement goal, however now that I am here I really love it! I hope to work in a Latin American country in the near future. In fact because of my abroad experience and desire to go to graduate school, I am not preparing to apply for Fulbright Scholar fellowship. I was extremely unaware of the types of opportunities and jobs that are available to some one who can speak more than one language and now I feel an entire new world full of diverse and different opportunities has opened up to me.
I will say academically it has been a little challenging because the grade system is a little different in Spain. Although the work is not difficult the grading is. However this style of grading has really caused me to focus on my language skills and helped me advance quicker than my peers.
As a student of color studying abroad meant something completely different to me compared to my peers. I had the opportunity to no longer feel like the minority, here I am able to speak my mother language and have my religious and cultural beliefs celebrated and respected. Instead of learning about a completely new culture, I was able to understand, that my culture is actually not all that much different to others. Abroad I have felt accepted and included and I have grown to gain pride in who I am culturally. Similarly our trip to Morocco for many was a completely new and unfamiliar culture but to the few Muslim students abroad with me, it served to be a liberating and self-assuring experience that may not be readily available in our hometowns. In conclusion studying abroad did not necessarily change how I view the world but instead reinforced the beauty in individuality that is not always celebrated in the United States.
Interested in studying abroad next Spring 2017? Spring applications are due May 1st. All Liberal Arts students studying or interning abroad are eligible for Enrichment Funding. To learn more, please schedule an appointment via Network Symplicity or email Jackie Smith,Global Experiences Coordinator (jds54@psu.edu)