Last semester I took a ferry to Africa, saw the Pope and lived with a host family who taught me all about Spanish culture. What did you do?

Every student should consider studying abroad. It is a great opportunity and you will create memories that you will last the rest of your life.

If you are nervous about going so far away from home at least look into it. There are a lot of options. There is a program for everybody. You can do a semester in Morocco or a week in Costa Rica. You can take some classes, get an internship or even student teach abroad. Basically whatever it is you want to experience, there’s a program for it.

If money is an issue, don’t be so quick to ignore studying abroad. In some cases tuition is cheaper than Iowa State’s. There are special study abroad scholarships, and all of your ISU financial aid can be applied towards your program. There are plenty of resources you can take advantage of to make your situation work.

The Study Abroad Office on campus is a great resource. The office is located in the Memorial Union at 3224. You can ask the student workers about their experiences or there are full time staff that are more than willing to help you.

I studied abroad last spring semester in Caceres, Spain. It was the best decision I ever made. I did so many things that I don’t know if I will have the chance to do in the future. I got to live with a host family, which for me was the best experience. I didn’t go with any friends so I got to meet twenty other ISU students who became my family for that semester. There is nothing I would change about my experience.

Think about it. At what other point in your life will you be able to make traveling and experiencing new things a priority over studying or work? When you study abroad your main focus is experiencing a new culture and doing everything you can in whatever amount of time you chose. That’s the best part.

Additionally, you can’t learn this stuff from a book. You never know which country the people who you share a room in a hostel with will be from. You meet so many people, many of them you will never talk to more than once, but you still learn something from them. For example, I was eating breakfast at a hostel in Lisbon, Portugal, and I spent the morning talking to a guy from Australia who worked in England and decided to take a year to travel. You just never know who you will meet or what will happen.

We had plenty of opportunities to travel. I went to 15 different cities across Europe. I learned how to travel efficiently and at a low cost. I learned how to read maps and use a second language outside of the classroom.

If you still need some convincing here’s another reason why you should study abroad. Rick Steves, a travel expert, believes that studying abroad is a necessity. He mentions that employers look for people who have studied abroad because they want people who are flexible, comfortable in multicultural situations and even multilingual. Studying abroad is an easy way to develop all of those qualities, and you will have plenty of examples to share during an interview.

Steves also discusses that a lot of fear that is in our society today can vanish if people understand each other better. Stereotypes give us an easy way to categorize people and things that we may not understand, but studying abroad can help create positive stereotypes. After you live in a different country and see how different (and similar) daily life can be you start to understand different people and cultures better.

Studying abroad was the best thing I did during my time at Iowa State. Twenty years after I graduate I may not remember every class I took or even some of my friends, but I know I will always remember my time in Caceres.

Seriously, take advantage of this opportunity.