AIFS Abroad Reviews

As an international business major, the final requirement for my degree program was completing an internship abroad. I found myself rushing to find one (to graduate on time!) and I wasn't having much luck. After searching through several internship placement programs, I found Global Experiences and I'm so glad that I did. They were very quick to follow up with my initial inquiry (within 24 hours) and were willing to take me on shortly before the Dublin program started.

The Global Experiences team really made an effort to understand what I was looking for in my internship. The process of identifying and understanding your strengths and SMART goals is very useful and helps you to actively think about how you can maximize your internship experience.

My internship was at Fumbally Exchange and Institute of Designers in Ireland (same location and overlapping responsibilities), and I couldn't have asked for a better experience. I was fortunate enough to work with such a passionate and talented group of professionals and was able to learn so much from everyone.

Our housing was at Griffith College, which was located close to Dublin's city center, so I was able to walk to work everyday. The campus always felt safe and the same can be said for the surrounding area.

The site coordinators (Peter and Hayley) were always available to help out with any issues. The major trips (Giant's Causeway, Cliffs of Moher) were well-organized.

I would definitely recommend Global Experiences if you're seeking an opportunity to intern abroad.

One of the most sought after experiences of studying abroad is to befriend local students and immerse yourself into the culture. Due to the amazing resident director of AIFS in Grenoble, France, I was able to do just that. Miranda created mixers for our program with students from the nearby university giving us an opportunity to meet French students. My friends and I met amazing French students from the engineering school who invited us out to eat dinner together, to cook together, and to see the nightlife together. This program helped me accomplish my goal of becoming fluent in French by putting me in a school of international students learning French as well as my goal of exploring France by going on weekend trips to Paris, Provence, and local towns. If you are looking for a unique experience to study in France, Grenoble is your best bet!

Your semester or year abroad really will be the time of your life. Going abroad was one of the best decisions I could have made, but going abroad with AIFS really was the best. From the application process to my whole time abroad, everything was simple and easy. With an all-inclusive program like AIFS everything is taken care of for you. Once I applied and filled out the paperwork that was it. My housing, food, flights, and transportation once I landed was taken care of. There were even activities included in the cost for once we were in London! All I had to worry about was getting myself to the airport. Not only was the process simple, but the staff on-site were incredible. The resident director really was our mom while we were in London. She took care of any issues we were having no matter how silly they may have seemed. The academic advisors and the professors made the academic experience all that it could have been. They were always there to help if there was a problem. My time abroad was one that I will remember forever and going abroad with AIFS was the best decision I made.

I studied in Berlin with AIFS in January of 2016, and my experience there has stayed with me in the year since my return. From adjusting to living like a German local to taking classes at one of the city's best schools, I really felt as though I could balance acting like a tourist and behaving like someone who lives in the city full time. The staff I encountered both through AIFS and at Humboldt University were enthusiastic and consistently helpful, and although I often opted to travel independently based on my own schedule, I always felt as though I could ask for support if I needed it. I also appreciated AIFS's all-inclusive fee--paying one price upfront included perks such as a transportation pass and a meal plan, and for an additional fee the program would even plan your travel. Having that support while you're adjusting to spending time in a new country is something that was incredibly useful, and I appreciate AIFS's willingness to help you as much or as little as you'd like.

Expensive. This sums up the program. I went to London and studied in a conference room at UCL. A CONFERENCE room with AMERICAN teachers and only AMERICAN students. The meal plan 10 pounds loaded onto a card and that's it. Sure you get a small discount but the end cost of the food isn't worth it. Eat somewhere else other than the school. I had a great time because I made an effort to go out and experience. My deepest disappointment was the was payments were handled. I received loans that were supposed to completely cover the program however there was an issue with my loan provider. This had nothing to do with aifs only my school, however, it effected how I would be able to pay aifs. I reached out to the AIFS contact who handled payments to let them know about the situation and how I was working with my school to fix the issue. It was clear them (whom I will respect and not name) did not believe me. Keep in mind this was happening towards the end of the program. With 5 days left (seriously five days!) they told me I would be removed from the program, they would keep my money, I wouldn't be able to take my finals (meaning I would fail) and I would have to get my own plane ticket home. I don't appreciate the threats especially since I was making every effort to remedy the situation amidst finals week, packing, and my final goodbyes. I had to borrow my mother's rent money to remain in the program for the last few days. The best part about this is that, even though I paid the final amount, they didn't feel the need to communicate this fact to the rest of aifs staff and I was still going to be "administrativly removed" from the program the days before it ended. several more emails later I handed the situation. I was overall disappointed.

AIFS is a great program to travel with. From the flight option, where they will partner you with another student travelling from your region, to the meal plan, where I was able to forget about budgeting for food, the nitty gritty details were all planned for me before I even left the country! They also set up my housing before I arrived and lived with another AIFS student.

Because Murdoch University has a partnership with exchange and study abroaders, I was able to partake in experiences Murdoch only offers to those who are visiting their university short term. Those included a 10 camping trip in the outback, a weekend trip south to the Margaret River region, and others!

I wasn't quite sure what to think before studying abroad, about how I would fit in or enjoy an overseas country by myself. I have spent a number of years living abroad with my family prior. However, to use a cliche expression, Cannes was literally a life-changing experience for me. The classes and professors were amazing at teaching French, the students I met from around the world were fun to meet and share stories with, and the friends I made are some of my best friends till this day a year later. The food is great in France, most of it came from a grocery store a mile down the road that I fell in love with, but the cafeteria was a fun experience too. Housing in the dorms was incredible, you got to meet and become great friends with all the students there from all over the world, and my room even had a view of the Mediterranean, not to mention its only a 100 foot walk to the beach.

In addition, I'd like to give special thanks to AIFS and the program director Sandrine who was there and showed us around both the incredible town of Cannes, and on all our excursions, which were better than I could have hoped for by miles. I got to see huge portions of southern France, experience the food, learn the language and converse with people from all over the world, relax, party, study, explore, and really discover myself and what I wanted to do with the rest of college and afterwards. I am now onto the Peace Corps to keep travelling as much as I can! Thanks AIFS!

I went to the University of Limerick in the spring of 2016. I chose this program because it was in an English speaking country and was a in a quieter part of the country. I loved living in Limerick. The college is actually in Castletroy and you have to take a bus to get into the actual city but it's not that bad. There is a convenience store located within 5 minutes of all of the dorms including one on campus so if you need something and don't have time to go into the city you can just pop over there. The professors were all really understanding of the fact that I was an international student and not used to their school system and worked with me on getting the coursework right. There are several places to live on campus. I lived in Plessey which is about a 10 minute walk to the actual campus. I ended up living with 7 other American girls. Just because I lived with Americans didn't mean I didn't meet international students. I would recommend joining international society. That is where I met a lot of my friends from other places in the world. They also sponsor trips every weekend which I loved going on. They are about 10 euro each but you are gone for the entire day in a different part of the country. Totally worth it. From where I lived it was about an hour to the Shannon airport. This airport is nice because it's small and there's not much going on. They fly pretty much anywhere you would want to go. Flights are so cheap over there that it's so easy to just fly to London or Barcelona for the weekend. The on site staff were amazing. It was 2 Irish women. They gave us their phone numbers and told us to contact them if we were ever having any problems. I took advantage of that many times. They were so nice and helpful. They would come with us on the AIFS sponsored trips. One of them even brought along her family for one of the trips, which was really fun. I loved my time in Ireland. The people there are nice and helpful. It's a really fun place to be.

My experience has been amazing!
Nothing really about the internship that I didn't enjoy. If anything it was more like certain types of blog posts were less fun than others, but that's the same with any job. Writer's block was an obstacle for me when I wasn't terribly inspired by the project and I really had to kick myself in the pants sometimes to just get it done!
As for the Global Experiences parts of the internship I loved the outings, big surprise huh? Having Eleonora as our overseer was amazing, she's the best! Friend, tour guide (because she knows alot about the places we go!), guardian angel. We were lucky to have her, she's very sweet and kind and it was great knowing if we needed something or had questions she would be very prompt with her responses.
The schooling sadly did little for me, maybe it was just my learning style didn't fit but I regret not using that two weeks to just travel. The instructors themselves were very friendly though.
Another thing, the metro card, guys this saves us so much hassel! Never get rid of this! Ever!

Talking about my internship:
When I arrived and began working with my supervisor, a fashion blogger, we jumped right in to things. She had me up an running with all the log in's for her email, wordpress, pinterest, twitter, and instagram in the first few days and by the end of the first week I was keeping her calendar, reasearching trends, writing blog posts and going along for outfit pickups and events. I also helped her shoot a look book for a designer she was consulting for which was pretty cool.
Fashion week itself was a different kind of schedule altogether. Before fashion week it's all about the prep work like picking up fashion week outfits from press rooms, writing about what trends we will see in the show as well as keeping up the everyday work like shooting and writing about different outfits. We also try and lay out a tentitive scheduale as best we can before fashion week with the events and shows we know about before all the last minute (like 'day of' last minute) emails come in and we are scrambling to make sure they all make it on the calendar. Then it's a week of running to this show or that event, fighting for a seat amongst the seasoned fashion week photographers, and hagling with security. Exchanging pleasantries with PR, picking up press releases and goodie bags and doing all this while constantly updating twitter and instagram stories from every event you go to along the way.

After fashion week everything slows nearly to a halt for about a day or two, while we catch a breather, doing clean up work like retrning borrowed designer peices and organizing the million goodie bags with product and press releases. Then things in the writing sector take off and, because we now have so much material to work with our topic pile is overflowing, the blog post frenzy begins. So it may seem quieter because no, you aren't running around hopping on and off public transport til 8,9,10 at night, you are technically staying in but you're staying in because you have several hours, days of writing that needs to be done haha!

Working with this supervisor there's a role you don't find in a lot of work environments, she really wants you to be soaking in a learning as much as possible. It is actually a must for her, as oppossed to a lot of places where it is more 'here's the work you have done by this time, oh and hopefully it will help you learn something'. No she wants you to understand what you are doing, the reason and purpose behind doing it and how to do it well.
She also gives you a lot of independence, if you have a list of events to go to, you go on your own a lot of the time, and unless told otherwise you pretty much decide which order to go to them and when. You're job is just to make sure you make it to all of them and do the job right. So an important role here is to really keep yourself on task.

Patience, perhaps stemmed from years of retail work, has helped tremendously in this line of work and in a new country. Patience with the people, patience with the public transportation system that has an agenda of it's own and is at times utterly confusing, or on strike! Patience with those who send last minute emails but fully expect you to attend their event, and those events that don't start on time by like a whole hour. Patience with the workload, and with yourself for not having more of done.

My advice to any intern: Communicate, keep yourself in line and organized and be useful! Because it will all help you in the end!

My internship in Dublin was fantastic. I was at a great internship and got to meet open minded people who are passionate about travel and learning. From start to finish anything I asked for was accommodated by GE and I was able to relax and have fun because of it. I feel like I grew both personally and professionally as a result of my internship. I would recommend GE to anyone who is looking to study or intern abroad.