CEA CAPA Education Abroad Reviews

I cannot swim but when I was offered the chance to go snorkeling in the Great Barrier Reef I frighteningly accepted. I went there with Joy a girl I had gotten close to in the program and she helped me through the water and remaining calm throughout the experience. I was able to see beautiful fish in the ocean a once in a lifetime experience that I will never forget. I faced my fears and made an amazing friend in the process.
CAPA was a great program that landed me an internship and helped me break out of my comfort zone. While it was never perfect down under it was a great experience and I will miss all the friends I made in Sydney.

One of my favorite and first memories from studying abroad with CAPA was a CAPA organized scavenger hunt. The groups were divided, roughly 5 people per group, and we were given sheets of paper with questions and locations. Opal cards in hand, our group attempted the buses and trains to go from Haymarket (Chinatown) to the CAPA center to the CBD. It was really fun, and my group actually won-earning us free tickets to see Othello at the Sydney Opera House. It was a really great way to get to know the city and our fellow students.

My flatmates and I absolutely fell in love with a little festival right by the London Eye, called Udderbelly. We always met here after our internships and grabbed a drink, sitting amongst the locals and completely blending in. It was amazing that nobody had to know we were American. We would always walk along Southbank and explore, walking along the Millennium Bridge, staring at Shakespeare's Globe, taking touristy pictures with Big Ben, etc. It was those daily, small things that really made my trip the best experience of my life.

I interned at a social media monitoring company called Olytico, and a month into the internship the team invited me to be a part of their quarterly review in which they go on a city field trip. While reviewing the company's progress for the last couple of months we went to the leprechaun museum, practised storytelling with the help of two theatre producers and participated in a play in the Dublin Theatre Festival. This was definitely the most random yet memorable day I had in Dublin. Cracking up at the tour guide's jokes at the museum, stepping outside of my comfort zone with storytelling and running through the halls of a Georgian house with actresses as part of an interactive play made me much more of a local than if I had simply taken classes abroad. The internship is what made the difference between an ordinary study abroad experience and an absolutely amazing one.

Finding CAPA's Dublin program was one of the luckiest moments of my life. I honestly did not understand how incredible of an opportunity it was until I got there. Dublin is a great city; we always described it as an international city with a small town feel. It was easy navigate and easy to love.
Living on campus and having an internship abroad truly immersed us in Irish culture. Our on campus staff were there all day to chat with or check in with if necessary. I got sick while abroad, and CAPA made that a lot less stressful. Furthermore, my internship was fantastic. I learned a lot about myself, but I was also able to meet people many different generations in Ireland, and I know that I made connections that will last a lifetime. Outside of my internship, I was able to make friends with some of the kindest, funniest people that I still speak to today.
Besides being the first thing commented upon on my resume, this experience is one of the first things I mention about myself. It truly made me more confident, more introspective, and happier. I am so grateful for the opportunities that CAPA presented to us & how it continues to further success and happiness in my life.

My experience in Dublin was amazing. The CAPA program had me studying at Griffith College, just a 20 min walk (less than 10 on the bus) from city center, and interning at Island Key Childcare. I thoroughly enjoyed my courses; compared to my home institution they were not as academically challenging, but I learned a lot and had a great time. Dublin is a diverse and growing city that has so much to offer any college student.

I am giving CEA a 1 star for their disappointing first impression and for their poor system of assigning roommates. I have studied abroad once before, through a different program, where I had no problems with roommate requests. If anything, roommate requests should make CEA’s job easier when it comes to matching roommates. I had requested to be with my friend back in November, and I was with her when she accepted my request. That should be a big enough indicator that we wanted to be together. CEA is claiming that I needed to also accept her request which seems like a whole unnecessary second step. When I called CEA to ask about our roommate assignments, they were able to see that we had requested each other. When I asked why they did not honor our roommate request, they were not able to give me a valid reason. Not only am I not roommates with my friend, but she’s not even in the same building as I am in! I would have been less inclined to complain if she going to at least be placed in the same building as me. CEA should make roommate requests a bigger priority because some people choose to be roommates because of plans to borrow/share clothes, toiletries, electronics or so they can split bills on groceries or taxi cab fees, etc. It is not only inconvenient, but it also adds an unnecessary risk to our safety. Our travel plans include us arriving to airports and train stations late at night and it is unfortunate that we now have to take separate routes to get to our own apartments instead of us just staying together. It is obviously safer to arrive back to your apartment with someone, so if two people knew that they would be with each other the majority of their stay, I don’t understand why CEA would not want to honor their roommate requests. I have worked incredibly hard to save money for this program and it is so disappointing that this program does not try harder in granting roommate requests. I have talked to other people on this program and they too have said their roommate requests were not granted. I will not let this roommate mix up incident ruin my trip, but hopefully CEA proves to be more accommodating, organized, and hospitable for the remaining of the program. 

Known for its cafés and strolls down cobblestone roads, Buenos Aires left that impression on me as well, and so much more. My favorite experiences in BA was waking up early one cold morning and walking a couple miles to meet with my classmates for an excursion. Being that no one in BA gets up earlier than 9am, the streets we completely silent and all I could hear were the birds and my shoes as they hit the distressed pavement on every step. As per usual, I stepped into a random café and got myself a medialuna (croissant-like pastry) and a cortado (a shot of espresso and milk) and continued on to my destination.
Aside from giving us the chance to experience the everyday life in Buenos Aires, CAPA gave us the unique opportunity to immerse ourselves in the professional lives of Argentinians in the Healthcare field. The curriculum of the Comparative Healthcare Systems Seminar not only exposed us to their healthcare systems and how they work, but we were also given a brief history of Argentina and history of healthcare. This interdisciplinary form of teaching allows us to have a deeper understanding of who makes up the population, where they reside, and their views on health which then allows us to better absorb our experiences when visiting clinics and hospitals. This is an example of CAPA does its best to give us a unique form of immersion; informed immersion.
The one thing I liked about the program coordination was that this was very well structured but the faculty and staff were flexible as well. CAPA does its best to make sure you obtain the goals you would like to achieve while abroad. For example, I was determined to shadow a physician at some point during my trip. Even though it wasn’t originally on the schedule, our faculty were able to ensure that my goals were met and had a fulfilling experience.
My best advice would be to take hold of the reigns and be proactive in reaching the goals you would like to achieve. It may seem that some aspect of the curriculum or schedule is lacking to your interests or missing something you would like to experience, there is no harm in trying to be instrumental in the programs’ service to you. CAPA is always willing to hear your voice and to implement change.

I could not recommend CEA Pais enough. I dont want to leave, none of us do, and many of my friends are even staying a year now because they cant leave! In short, | would say it is a city where you cannot have complaints, and CEA really meets you to ensure your time is even better. They were careful to match us with roommates who we are most alike, who will hopefully be my new friends for life! We were so fortunate to have a gorgeous and very spacious apartment, which can be so hard to come by in Paris, in a safe and very french arrondissement.

In Paris, you are living in a city where you will hear little to no English in passing, you basically must know at least key french words to get by, and I actually felt fully apart and integrated into the french culture off the bat. That is definitely someting I can't say about other european cities I visited. I feel so lucky to know I have really and truly had an experience where I can call it a home, and don't consider myself a tourist, because you quickly learn that you won't be treated the way you want to if you act like a tourist. I learned to adapt to a culture completly different from my own!

If you are to join CEA Paris, my one advice is, DO everything. Go to the free events: soccer games, wine tastings, tours, overnight trips, because those were where we became close as a program and | built relationships with students (CEA students) from all over the united states that I would have never met otherwise.

I did enjoy my time at CEA very much. 4/5 of my professors were excellent. My experience was incredible, and I loved Paris so much. Thank you for a great semester. I had a great experience with great professors, for the most part and the CEA administration is excellent. I lived in a lovely neighborhood, although my dorm wasnt the greatest (not through any fault of CEA), they were lovely and very helpful.