FIE: Foundation for International Education

My experience was unique because of the people that I got to meet through my internship. I feel so lucky to have gotten the internship that I got. I truly couldn’t have asked for a better placement! I felt like the program really listened to what I was looking for from this experience and did their best to help me find it. For future participants I would say to asks lots of questions and use all the resources and opportunities that the program provides you with. Not only is it so much fun but I feel that if I didn’t take advantage or reach out to the resources provided by FIE my experience wouldn’t have been nearly as impactful as it was. It’s ok to be nervous or to struggle in fact you are meant to and the program is there to support you through it!

I am so thankful for my experience this past summer in Ireland. I was there for 9 weeks and I completed a class, and participated in a 8 week internship (Monday-Thursday). I enjoyed getting to experience Dublin, to embrace the culture and to make new friends! My internship was awesome! I would go back in a heartbeat! Thank you FIE for partnering with TTU to make this opportunity possible.

Our housing was close to the city center which made it easy to walk places and to pick up public transportation.

Looking back on my experience this past summer, I would not change anything. I had the best summer of my life and it’s all because of this program. I got to learn and see all parts of London while taking my classes and then got to experience what living and working in London is really like. Would not change a thing. Would recommend this program to so many people! While in London, you should definitely go try to experience as much of London as you can. Traveling within the country is so easy and you can do so many day trips.

There was not enough staff in our program, they accepted 2-3x the amount of students they normally could and were not prepared for it in the slightest. They switched out housing after the payment deadline and then lied about its location to both the students and UF. They could not handle placing this many students at internships, and then when they were poorly placed tried to refuse to switch them. I was placed in an education internship, and worked with both FIE and my home institution for 4 weeks trying to get them to change it before I had to find my own internship through personal connections. This was extremely frustrating as I paid a lot of money to be given an internship that would look good on my resume, and going into my senior year I needed real life experience and once I switched internships it was still not perfect and I had only a few weeks left to gain experience there due to their delay and refusal to switch me. I am urging my home institution to drop FIE as a partner for this program altogether, as their a lack of organization was extremely frustrating for me and many of the other students on the program. I loved Dublin, and I love the students on my program, but I think FIE not only did not contribute to any of my personal growth, but it also made my experience significantly worse. They need to hire more people for sure, and seriously look over all of their policies that “prevent them from switching students internships” even though it is a mistake that they made and they need to fix. I don’t think I could be more upset and frustrated with how they acted during this program.

London was a unique experience for me personally, academically, and professionally. I gained confidence in my ability to acclimate to new environments and take positive risks. We created an abundance of memories that will last a lifetime, and I'm very grateful I had the opportunity. The internship experience was crucial to integrating with British culture and people. The coursework was a perfect balance of academia and experiential learning. The field trips we took added to our understanding of what we were learning to an even deeper level. Thank you for facilitating these experiences, FIE.