Study Abroad Guidebook: Blog Six

4 Minutes Read

After visiting the study abroad info session, I made an appointment to see one of the study abroad advisors for November six. During the info session, we were introduced to four study abroad programs, USAC, IP, AIFS, and Direct Exchange. USAC and AIFS aren’t based in California so CSU students like myself won’t be able to use state grants to fund our study abroad expenses. USAC and AIFS are both “first come first serve” bases. The available options for a student that is looking to USAC, the available options are one semester, winter, summer, or a yearlong abroad. IP is the official study abroad program at CSU, Chico. It’s more competitive to get in because you are competing against other CSU students from all campuses. IP is a yearlong program, there aren’t any other options available. With Direct Exchange, it’s basically a CSU student swapping places with another student in a different country affiliated with CSU, Chico. The two students will swap places, meaning the CSU student will go to that country and the student from that country will come here to CSU, Chico. The only problem with this is that there must be a student who wants to come over.

All the programs offer different amounts and varieties of benefits. Even though my education is mostly funded by Financial Aid, I decided to meet with the USAC advisor because the USAC program offers, more of a hands-on experience and I don’t really want to mess up my experience abroad. My appointment was scheduled at two-twenty pm with Cecilia Lapolli. I arrived at two- ten pm and I checked in with the front desk. I sat down and observed the waiting once more. There weren’t a lot of students present again just like the other time I was previously in the office. I didn’t have to wait long before Cecilia came out to greet me.

We greeted each other and headed to her office, where she asked me when and where I wanted to study abroad. I answered with South Korea and that I wanted to go in my junior year. We discussed a little about my financial aid and how long I wanted to go. We looked at all the available scholarships that are for study abroad students. Through that discussion, we agreed that the IP program will be most beneficial to me. We looked through the IP program and found that there are two universities that are available for studying abroad in. Yonsei and Kookmin are the two available universities. For the IP program, there are some requirements that a student has to meet before applying for the IP program; students must have a 3.0 GPA, year of departure must be either a junior or senior, and have no records/incidents with student judicial affairs. After going through the general things, Cecilia asked me if I have any additional questions.

I said yes and proceeded to interview her on some questions I had previously made before coming to the appointment. I first asked her what is an obstacle most students face when they go study abroad? Cecilia replied that the most frequent thing students experience is culture shock. I asked more about culture shock and whether is it an immediate thing or does it take time to develop? She answered that it is different with every student, some could happen as soon as they land in the country and some could happen months later. Next, I asked what financial difficulties do students face when dealing with payments to the University or USAC? Cecilia replied that the most common difficulty that a student experiences financially is meeting deadlines when things are due. One of the questions I asked was do I need to attend another info session next year as well. She said that students only need to go to one info session and then they are registered into the system. I asked what is a peer advisor and how do I set up a meeting with a peer advisor? Cecilia explained that peer advisors are more knowledgeable in the specific area that a student may want to go to than a study abroad advisor might know. Meeting with an advisor is more about academics and general stuff. We finished up the meeting and I left the office feeling more confident in studying abroad.

November 7, 2017 0

Study Abroad Guidebook: Blog Five

3 Minutes Read

Aside from having to visit the study abroad office for classwork. I plan to go study abroad during my time in college. The year I plan to go study abroad is my junior year. I plan to be in South Korea for a whole year, that’s in 2019/20. I started researching about studying abroad and I found out that in order to have an appointment with a study abroad advisor, a student must attend a study abroad info session before arranging an appointment with a study abroad advisor. In a way, this is an extension of the study abroad office. The study abroad information sessions are offered every week except holidays, dead week, and finals week. The info sessions are available on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays. Each day is available at different times. On Tuesdays, the info session is from four–five pm. On Wednesdays, the info session is from five–six pm. On Thursdays, the info session is from eleven am – twelve pm. And on Fridays, the info session is from two–three pm. All info sessions are located in room 410 in the Student Service Center.

The purpose of the info session is exactly how it sounds. It is to inform students about studying abroad in a more detailed way than a booth at a fair or other place. The info session informs students about what study abroad programs and sites are available through CSU, Chico, how to get classes and units to count toward their major, minor, and/or G.E., the ways to finance their semester or year abroad, the possible and best majors, minors or upper division classes for Study Abroad, how the application process is for each program. After attending the info session, everything that I’ve listed is mentioned and answered at the study abroad info session.

I went to the info session with my friend Peter. We went to the info session on Friday, November third. I expected there to be a handful of students but then I forgot that it was Friday and students don’t want to stay on campus much the day before the weekend. I also forgot that it was November too, which means that most students probably attended an info session earlier in the year. There were only about six or seven students present at the one I went to (not including myself and my friend). We sat down, and the info session coordinator explained to us the timeline of what was going to happen in the following hour.

The info session starts off with greetings and an attendance sheet that is passed around (you don’t have to arrange an appointment to come to an info session, you just have to show up when it is available). After signing in, we watched a twenty-minute video about studying abroad. The video consisted of students being interviewed about their trip abroad, study abroad advisors speaking about the different programs, and the pros and cons of studying abroad. Once the video is done playing, the coordinator begins a presentation about studying abroad in a more in-depth model and goes over information that may not have been mentioned in the video. The presentation lasted for about thirty minutes, and in the last five minutes, the coordinator has the students go up to the front and grab pamphlets, brochures, etc on studying abroad. The coordinator advises that we should set up an appointment with one of the study abroad advisors in the following weeks. With that, the info session ended.

November 7, 2017 0

Study Abroad Guidebook: Blog Four

3 Minutes Read

My fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh blogs will be about the Study Abroad Office in CSU, Chico I will write about my experiences when I visit the study abroad office and the interactions I have with the students and faculties there. Before my classmates and I visited the study abroad office, we first visited the study abroad fair out in front of the Bell Memorial Union. The fair is to spread information to students, passers buyers, and staff about studying abroad. Most of the booths there were led and accompanied by student peer advisors. We split up and went to converse with different peer advisors that were present there. We didn’t stay too long because after talking with one peer advisor, we agreed that there isn’t any need to talk with other peer advisors. We came to that conclusion because most of the information that we are given is regurgitated information from each person besides the peer advisors’ experience from studying abroad.

We left the study abroad fair and went to the study abroad office instead. I visited the study abroad office with two members of my guidebook group. Jackie and Nate. We got to the study abroad office around eleven-twenty. The study abroad office is located on the fourth floor of the Student Service Center. The easiest way to get to the office is by elevator, unless you want to exercise then I would recommend using the stairs. As of now, the only other organization that is on the fourth floor is Educational Talent Search, also known as ETS. The office didn’t have a lot of students present when we first arrived, most likely still attending the study abroad fair. The office’s entrance is a double door that is propped all the way open. The doors are decorated with flyers, drawings, information, and other stuff about studying abroad.

We spoke with the person that was stationed at the front desk and explained that we were there to conduct research on the office and to see if we would be able to speak with someone who was knowledgeable about the history of the study abroad office. We were told to have a seat while she went to see if any of the study-abroad advisors were available for interviews. The waiting room is small and doesn’t have a lot of available seats to occupy. There are eight to nine seats, give or take on that. Across the front desk, there is an advisor? I wasn’t quite sure what and who they were. The advisor was talking with a student about Spain. I didn’t want to eavesdrop so much, instead, I focused on what was around us. We sat there observing the area for about five minutes. During that five minutes, there was an influx of students coming in and out of the study abroad office. Some exited the office from their appointments with advisors and some came into the office to arrange an appointment.

The front desk recipient came back and told us that the study abroad advisors are busy at the moment and that their availability during the day is from one-two pm and five-six pm during the weekdays. We said our thank you and left the office. It was unproductive, to be honest. Before we left, each one of us took selfies as proof of our visitation and exited the office.

November 7, 2017 0

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