Three Tips for Better Connecting to Your Study Abroad Experience

Intentional moments of reflection help you actively engage with your thoughts and emotions related to different experiences. While studying abroad and living a multitude of new experiences, it can be particularly helpful to slow down and think about all that you are experiencing. 

On GoOverseas, a current EdOdyssey Peru team member, Patty Valencia, wrote of a powerful moment that she witnessed during an EdOdyssey immersion trip in Peru: 

“After dinner, Peter - the President and Global Founder of EdOdyssey - led the group’s nightly reflection and I was moved by the students’ words. They were talking about how great and life changing their whole experience of being in Peru had been and how great [it] was to see people being so happy with what they had, and supportive of each other even when they hadn’t much to offer.”

Before, during, and after a study abroad experience, taking time to reflect on your values, beliefs, experiences, goals, and passions will help you fully engage with your experience and your inner emotions. 

PREPARING FOR THE UNKNOWN

As you prepare to study abroad, pause and think about your emotions, expectations, and fears, because doing so will help you set goals for the experience and guide what you look to get out of your time abroad. The day before I left to study abroad in Lima, Peru, I remember feeling completely unprepared and nervous about the experience that was to come. Acknowledging your worries and fears is okay and completely normal before a new experience. 

Before you head off to study abroad, consider some of these questions: 

• What are some of your passions?

• What are you most excited about? Most worried about? 

• Why did you choose to do this experience? 

My ice skating coach used to say before competitions that if you are nervous, that just means that you care. If you feel nerves before you study abroad, that is 100% normal and likely means that you care about this new experience and are anxiously anticipating the unknown that waits ahead. Accept that nervousness is part of the experience and remember that there are people who are there to support you throughout your journey abroad. 

REFLECTING THROUGHOUT YOUR ABROAD EXPERIENCE

The three main reasons why reflections are an integral part of EdOdyssey programs are to build trust and communication, to unpack our observations, and embrace emotions, are all also relevant while studying abroad. As you experience a new culture, face adversity, and adapt to a new environment, pausing to reflect on all you have gone through will help you both learn and grow. 

Handwriting a blog at a neighborhood park in Lima

Some popular manners of processing and reflecting on experiences are journaling, blogging, talking with classmates, program leaders, or other supportive relationships, and silent reflection. These forms of reflection can be done daily or weekly, or sporadically throughout the experience. 

When asked about the value of reflecting while abroad, Hui Li, who studied abroad in Italy and 2020 summer intern with EdOdyssey,  shares that: 

“Blogging, journaling, or doing any kind of recording/reflection on something like study abroad puts an abstract concept like time, experience, and growth into a concrete medium that you can use to put the things you learn into perspective. You have something in the physical realm that you can look back on like a timeline and use as a means to track your progress. By having a concrete record created over time, you can better assess how much you've grown since your first days abroad.” 

Taking in one of the Seven Wonders of the World with incredible friends!

THINKING BACK, LOOKING FORWARD

Coming home from being abroad can be a difficult experience. You may experience reverse culture shock after being immersed in a different culture for a long period of time. You have likely said goodbye to many friends or host family members who you do not know when you will see again. Additionally, you have had numerous unique experiences that others around you have not had. Reflection will help you process why returning home may have left you with a flurry of emotions. 

As you look toward your next adventure after studying abroad, you can think about how you’ll use your study abroad experience and takeaways to create the future that you want for yourself. Think about all the experiences you had abroad and take time to reflect on them, talk about them, and process them. 

Some questions that helped me when I returned from study abroad are the following:  

• What new passions do I have now? 

• What are some things that I learned while abroad?

• What are some experiences when I felt most happy? Most sad or uncomfortable? 

• What are some moments when I was most proud of myself?

These questions are great because you can reflect not only on your experiences, but on how they affected you and how you can work to create more proud and passion-fueled moments in the future. 

For some more ideas about post-study abroad reflection, check out Amanda Lowrey’s blog called Six Helpful Questions to Reflect on Your Study Abroad Experience!

Travel Prep and Planning Now: Benefits For Students and Teachers

At EdOdyssey, we believe that travel changes people, and people change the world. We know that students experience travel differently at different points in their lives, and educators and school communities play a pivotal role in showing their students the meaning of these experiences.

Visiting a foreign country invites people to pursue new experiences and adopt different viewpoints of the world. Like students, travelers are always learning new things and pondering how their new knowledge fits into their lives.

Travel plays a pivotal role in any student’s experience. School trips add a more adventurous and interactive side to course material. As students grow older and prepare for life after graduating from high school, it is important to provide them with formative experiences that leave a lasting impact afterward and further promote their personal growth.

As avid travelers and educators ourselves, we believe that traveling to a different country can provide students with exactly these experiences, and we believe that you - teachers, parents and communities - can make them happen.

Beginners in student travel, or global student travel experts, have an opportunity to plan to expand classes into a global setting. Now is the perfect time to learn how to develop or be a part of the moment to enhance your school’s experiential learning programs abroad, and you’ll see the long term benefits of preparing and planning for student travel.

YOUTH TRAVEL STARTS EARLY

What do you imagine when you see the phrase “Youth Travel?” A group of twenty-somethings backpacking in foreign countries? College students studying abroad for a semester or two?

While a lot of people travel in their late teens and early twenties, youth travel begins before then in high school.

Young people start traveling before they head off to college and become young professionals. According to the World Youth Student and Educational Travel Confederation (WYSETC), young people make up 23% of international airports around the world!  This survey includes people as young as 15; high school students are among the millions of young people traveling abroad.

High school students also made up a majority of the young people surveyed about their interest in international experience earlier this year. According to data from Statista, over 10,000 of the 18,000 total participants stated that they wanted to experience travel abroad! From the same survey, 8,000 students also said that they were very interested in a study abroad or international exchange program.

Even during a time of travel restrictions, it is important to keep a global perspective and continue planning for international trips for the future. After thousands of students were sent home earlier this year, Ahmad Ezzeddine, the Associate Vice President of Educational Outreach and International Programs of the National Association for Foreign Student Affairs (NAFSA: Association of International Educators) said about the worldwide nature of the current situation:

“It’s a perfect example of how everything we’re dealing with has a global nature. It’s why we need to continue to invest in study abroad and the international experience.”

ADVANTAGES OF SECONDARY SCHOOL TRAVEL

The excitement of adventure does not end after the trip is over - students bring home new experiences and memories that will last a lifetime! The impact that travel has on them during the trip stays with them and can benefit their success in high school and beyond. 

Exploring a different part of the world challenges students to approach topics from new perspectives.

Travel also grants students an opportunity to develop their own viewpoints. Their experiences in a different country are perfect to make their college applications stand out! Each student interprets travel experiences differently, and their unique stories can distinguish them from other applicants and wow the college admissions officers!

Bringing students abroad in high school inspires them to keep traveling and learning on their own beyond the educational setting! A 2016 survey focusing on youth travel states “28 percent of students who travel take more than one trip per year and those traveling between ages 10 and 18 are more likely to return to the destination later in life.” (Peltier and O'Brien 5 Charts Showing Student Traveler Preferences in the U.S. and Abroad)

WHY PLAN NOW?

Just because travel is on hold doesn’t mean that planning has to be. This is the perfect time to plan a trip abroad. This fall, EdOdyssey is hosting its first-ever Global Student Program Certificate for Educators course. Teachers, administrators, and faculty will have a chance to learn skills to develop, market, and enrich school trips abroad.

You’ll have the chance to take any of your benchmarks, your learning objectives, and your content area’s curriculum to infuse them into the design of your program for almost any theme and content area(s). As educators ourselves, we’ll show you how we build a trip that also functions as an academic program that prioritizes student learning while still creating a fun, enriching program.

Pick and choose from different modules, and get certified after completing the entire program. With the right travel planning and management skills tailored for you, you will be able to make international trips a reality for you and your students.

As Matthew Wolfe, an EdOdyssey featured traveler, wrote about his experience abroad, “Being able to see the world from a completely different perspective in another country is an opportunity that you simply should never pass up.”

To explore more about the benefits of travel prep and planning now, learn more about The Four Major Benefits Of Customizable Programs!

Ready to start planning?

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Sources

Duffin, Erin. “Interest among Students about International Experiences by Type U.S. 2020.” 

Statista, 13 July 2020, www.statista.com/statistics/985046/interest-among-students-international-experiences-type.

Peltier, Dan, and James O'Brien. “5 Charts Showing Student Traveler Preferences in the U.S. 

and Abroad.” Skift, 15 July 2016, https://skift.com/2016/07/15/5-charts-showing-student-traveler-preferences-in-the-u-s-and-abroad

Rifai, Taleb. “Facts and Stats.” WYSE Travel Confederation, 2020, 

www.wysetc.org/about-us/facts-and-stats/.

Toner, Mark, et al. “Internationalization, Interrupted.” NAFSA, 1 Apr. 2020, 

www.nafsa.org/ie-magazine/2020/4/1/internationalization-interrupted. 

Life at a Distance: Five Positive Takeaways

Nowadays distance is no longer a problem and most of our friends and family are not just a phone call away, but also just a video chat away. Prior to everyone staying at home, we had busy lives at school, work, or even both. Sometimes we didn’t make the time to visit our friends a few minutes down the road, or call our friends or relatives living in other places.

That has changed, and many of us find ourselves doing our part and staying inside rather than heading out. We moved away from our windows, or public places, and turned to our bedrooms or living rooms to stay in touch and reconnect with friends.

We’ve started talking more to our parents, roommates or even our pets, that just a few feet away from us, and we discovered there was so much more to learn from them.

Read more to learn the five positive takeaways of managing our friendships and relationships at a distance!

1. Reengaging Group Chats

Here at EdOdyssey, we firmly believe that travel really does change people, that having the experience of living in other cultures reshapes our minds into a more inclusive and humble way of thinking about life and others. Now that the world needs us to slow down for a moment, and technology has come to our rescue.

Some applications we have used for a long time now have issued updates to accommodate the need of more users in a single session. Whatsapp, for example, doubled its capacity to handle up to 8 users for video calls, and Google Meet became free to use for any users, whether they have a business account or not.

Social media and messaging apps become more important to keep these connections alive.  

2. Sharing more on Social Media

Never have we paid so much attention to our friends’ Instagram stories. And so, technology has helped us build virtual bridges that in just a few seconds tell us how everyone’s day is going, we can catch up on the latest with just tapping into a chatbox. There are now applications that say when people are available for phone calls to avoid calling someone when they’re not available.

But no matter how advanced our technology is today, what this actually tells us is that the connection between ourselves and our loved ones remains, despite the circumstances. This sentiment is especially true for those of us who have had the chance to travel.

3. Reconnecting With Old Friends

We have the opportunity to connect with friends on the other side of the world, another area in our region, or even a different state or time zone. The time that we’ve spent living somewhere away from home has given us the opportunity to learn about what makes us different, but also about what we share, and in the things we shared we built friendships.

We have laughed and cried with our new friends, we have been homesick with our new friends, and we have grown together even in our time apart from each other. 

4. Remembering meaningful moments

As we have returned to our lives back home, we too have physically distanced from those friendships from abroad with whom we once spent daily life, but we’ve gained perspective. If the added time at home has taught us anything, it has shown us that reconnecting with them will always feel like the last time we saw each other was yesterday. 

We may have had very little time in our lives in the past to reach out and ask how they are doing, but they were always in our thoughts. And if for some reason we never got to sending that text message, we have learned that it is never too late to pick up the phone and reconnect.

5. Embracing Positivity and Gratitude

From everyone at EdOdyssey, we want to thank you for doing your part during this time and sharing your light with the world. Our teams wants to encourage you to never let go of your adventurous spirit. If you are reading this as an avid traveler, a prospective study abroad student, a passionate teacher, or an EdOdyssey alum, please know that we appreciate you.

We have more options and opportunities than ever, but we have to share those feelings. If it’s a text, or any audio, say hello and you’ll be surprised what you receive in response! Follow us in the social media links below and engage with us!