Studying Abroad: Why Everybody Should Do It by Quentin

Studying Abroad: Why Everybody Should Do It by Quentin - November 2017 Scholarship Essay

As a hospitality management student at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, I have a huge interest in international travel and I plan to make a living outside of the United States; to be more specific, I wish to make a living in the country of Norway. Norway is a small, but charming country, thanks to its snow-capped mountains, charming language, and the Norwegian people themselves, and I have had great interest in the country for the past few years. Norway is not a country that shows up in the news very often like countries such as Russia or China tend to, and their sparse population of approximately 4.9 million citizens really makes the country seem like a safe and welcoming place for foreigners such as myself. What inspired me to go after my dream of making a living in Norway is a Norwegian woman who would visit my college campus in the summers to work for a theater program for youths as the head lighting designer (she actually attended the same university that I am attending many years ago) and her experiences that she shared with me really opened my eyes and made me want to learn more about what lies outside of the United States, especially in Norway.
Indiana University of Pennsylvania fortunately has a large study abroad program available and it expands out to various countries, and luckily for me, Norway is one of those countries. I have been planning on studying abroad to the University of Oslo for the past few years, and I have been saving up money over time that I can put towards this experience. I have also been learning to speak the Norwegian language for about a year now in order to make the transition easier as well. That is how passionate I am about this goal, and I will do anything I have to in order to reach that goal.
Studying abroad is something that I believe that students should try at least once while receiving higher education; it exposes you to many new experiences, people and cultures, which could actually turn someone who tends to be very narrow-minded (like myself, I will admit) into someone who actually wants to experience new things, and go on new adventures, all while excelling academically. These new experiences can help develop an appreciation for things that may be out of our comfort zones and could possibly help us decide what we truly want to do with our futures. Many students attend college undecided; this is not uncommon. In fact, I think it should be encouraged to go into freshman year undecided, because if they change their mind during the semester, they have to worry about the stresses of changing a major which can be a real pain. But by doing this, students have the opportunity to complete their liberal study requirements the university provides, and perhaps this period of their college career would be the most ideal time to experience a study abroad program, so that by the end of their freshman year, they will hopefully have a general idea of what interests them. Even though the first year of college may be new to them and could perhaps be a cultural shock from the transition from high school, going out there into the world could help alleviate these students from the pressures of the new atmosphere that college has. And besides, who wouldn’t want to visit another country of the world? Most young people are ambitious and want to experience new things, and the younger they are, the more ambitious young people tend to be, and study abroad programs are the best way to channel that ambition into something productive. And let’s face it; young people get bored easily, and I know I get bored very easily. That’s why I want to do this; it gives me something to think about and keep myself occupied, while at the same time experiencing something that I am very passionate about.
As for myself, studying abroad will really be beneficial to me because since I am a hospitality management major. I will be interacting with foreigners throughout my career, and studying abroad will no doubt help me get used to communicating with people from different cultural backgrounds. After all, in the hospitality industry, it is key that you show respect to all guests, no matter how they may portray themselves to you. One thing that I actually know about the Norwegian people is that they tend to be very introverted. Luckily for myself, I happen to be quite introverted as well, so I tend to get along with the Norwegian people that I meet in person here at Indiana University of Pennsylvania. But in order to get to know how people from a certain cultural background act and what they think about certain things, you need to experience it through immersion, which is basically throwing yourself into the middle of a situation that you’re unfamiliar with and is different than what you’re used to, and you must learn to adapt to it, and a study abroad program will definitely give me, as well as anybody else interested in studying abroad, the opportunity to practice this so that I can be better prepared for my future in the hospitality industry later on in my life.