Oregon by Amanda

Oregon by Amanda - March 2016 Scholarship Essay

In my personal opinion, I do not believe that all college students should be required to study abroad. While I personally see the value in studying abroad, it is not necessarily as valuable to others. As humans, we should never be forced into any situation in which we are not comfortable; we have fought to have our voices heard and our opinions should be valued. I do believe, however, that all students should be presented with the opportunity to study abroad, and have easier accesses to obtaining information about the studying abroad program at their school of choice.
Studying abroad has always been of particular interest to me. I thoroughly enjoy traveling, and want to see as much of the world as I possibly can. My goal is to become an elementary school teacher, and having the opportunity to see how teachers in other countries present information to their students is something that would be extremely valuable to furthering my own skills. For my desired profession, studying abroad would be a step in the right direction, but studying abroad does not necessarily benefit all careers. There is no need for a person who wants to be a professional athlete, for instance, to study abroad solely based on furthering their career. It is difficult to justify that studying abroad could help every person in the world- impossible even.
I also love experiencing and exploring different cultures, and studying abroad would allow me to follow these passions of mine. Traveling is not for everyone however; forcing a person to travel if they don’t enjoy it would not make the experience a beneficial one. There are some people who prefer to stay close to home, and placing them in an environment in which they are uncomfortable would be wasting their time. One of the reasons why humanity is so beautiful is because we all have different interests and personalities; our individuality should not be diminished through taking away our right to make decisions for ourselves.
There are both pros and cons to studying abroad, and I believe that these pros and cons weigh differently to each individual. For example, one major pro to studying abroad (in my opinion) is having to be far away from my family for so long. My family and I are extremely close, and I know I would get homesick quickly. For others, being away from their family might not be as big of an issue. This example highlights exactly why I believe students should not be required to study abroad; all of us have different wants, needs, and desires that must be fulfilled. All of us have different values, and if colleges try to force studying abroad on those who have no desire to travel, they will be impeding these values that we treasure and make us who we are.