WorldStrides Reviews

TEAN Abroad is an amazing program to study abroad with. They personally take you on an orientation before classes begin that helps you to better integrate into the culture and learn more about the country that you chose to stay. TEAN Abroad helped me decide to study marine biology in Australia and I will be returning to James Cook University for my Masters degree. No other program could make your experience abroad better! You will never want to leave Australia!

TEAN has a fantastic program, and Thailand is an amazing country, so it's pretty hard to go wrong. The academics were challenging, but incredibly interesting and engaging. TEAN organized really great excursions, from day trips to a weekend at the beach, and that's one of the things that makes their program so great. Chiang Mai is an incredible city to live in, with good food and cool cafes and a fun but chill bar scene, and it's a really cool place to be a student. The travel opportunities are also abundant, and I had the opportunity to visit Myanmar, Laos, Cambodia, and Malaysia throughout the semester, as well as Bangkok and the southern islands. I went camping on an island in the south, and went hiking on the tallest peak in Thailand. I am so much more adventurous and open to new things now, and I plan on returning as soon as I possibly can. The experience changed me for the better, and I had an amazing time and made amazing friends. It is so worthwhile to study abroad anywhere, but going to Asia gets you off the beaten path (study abroad-wise) and opens you up to a lot of new things that you might never experience in the same way without the immersion of going to school in a country. The village homestay throws you right in, and it's a perfect way to start the semester. Everything is so inexpensive in Chiang Mai, as well, so it's possible to do so much when your money goes as far as it does! My number one advise would be to trust your gut! If you're thinking about going to Thailand, go with TEAN, and don't be afraid even if no one you know has ever been anywhere near Asia. You have everything to gain from this experience, and it's incredible.

Going abroad with TEAN was a decision that I will never regret in my entire life. It was the first time that I had studied abroad and I cannot imagine going abroad because of the type of experience they helped me discover. Shanghai is a special place that I now hold very near and dear to my heart even if I was only there for a short amount of time. I made friendships from around the world that I know will last a lifetime. Seeing everything in person rather than in photographs such as the Bundt, the Pearl Tower, Yu Garden, and Shanghai Disney was so surreal and I still sometimes cannot believe that I actually went there. Lastly, Fudan University deserves all the praise it has been receiving as a place for higher education. It pushed me to work better in groups, work outside my comfort zone, and to think outside the box. If these are the kind of experiences that you are looking for in a study abroad experience then TEAN is the program for you!

I never wanted to leave Dunedin! TEAN was an incredible resource and did a fabulous job getting us all acquainted and comfortable in our new homes. I had the greatest time of my life on this program! I absolutely loved being able to take courses with both international students and native New Zealanders, and thought the resources available (especially the international students' office) were phenomenal. The "flatting" experience was one of the highlights of my whole semester -- getting to live with other international students was an amazing experience, and my fellow flatmates become some of my closest friends I made while abroad. There was no shortage of delicious food (and yummy flat whites!), which made it easy to find fun things to do with friends. Of course, I couldn't forget about the outdoor activities -- I'm a HUGE outdoors enthusiast, so Dunedin was heaven on earth to me. TEAN made it easy to find hikes and other activities to do, as well as took us to see some really beautiful places on our orientation. I felt so grateful to have these beautiful outdoor spaces made so accessible to us. Overall, my time abroad was a life-changing experience, and I would recommend this program to anyone!

My experience working with staff at the TEAN program was nothing short of awesome. Everyone at this organization is so well-versed in what they do and know such specific things about each program that their ability to help students is top-notch. Studying abroad is a pretty big decision and absolutely stressful when the process first begins. However, TEAN was so helpful and answered every single question I could muster up, and managed to get me excited about this amazing experience I was about to have. I would have to say my favorite thing was having an on-sight TEAN advisor. My advisor was actually born and raised in New Zealand and attending graduate school so she was super helpful when it came to travel advice in the area, any questions I ever had about the way their universities worked there, and even just what hikes she liked or coffee shop she recommended. I haven't stopped thinking about my semester abroad since I've come home, and it's been about a year now since I started the application process. I made life-long friends, which I was honestly super nervous about at first, but it was so easy. Every single student going through TEAN that I met at orientation was so excited to be there and so adventurous and accepting; we were all in the same boat, trying to meet people and have fun, so it was so easy to make friends. My friends that I met at Lincoln University are absolutely, without a doubt, life-long friends now. Living in an international section was probably the best decision I made because I got to meet people from literally all around the world. I was traveling the incredible and beautiful country of New Zealand with American, Norweigian, Dutch, German, Swedish, and Brazilian friends. Who could have even imagines that? It was so surreal, and I wish I could relive every single second of my semester in New Zealand. I always felt like I had a safety net with in-person help from TEAN as well as over the phone and online as well. They were always there in the background which was amazing, and I was still able to explore and travel and be adventurous without being held back. Overall, I would 110% recommend this program to anyone looking to get out there and adventure a little bit; you won't regret choosing this program!!

I am sure this only happens to a small amount of student travelers but everyone should know what happens if you get injured while on a study away program with ISA.

I was unfortunately only in the Czech Republic for 4 days when I broke my leg. It was broken to the point that I needed emergency surgery. I was brought to a Czech Hospital where no one spoke English and I was not provided an interpreter. On the day I was released from the hospital (Friday) I was put into an UBER with an ISA Staff memeber and he dropped me at my apartment and was left alone for most of the weekend. The staff member did check in on 1 time through email on Saturday and, after a phone call was made by my mom to the administration, a staff member checked up on me on Sunday for approx 30 min and then every day after that for approx the same amount of time until my mother arrived in country to take me home. (ISA Prague staff was friendly and did bring me books and fruit) I did not have a working Czech phone number so in the event of an emergency I would have just sat there until someone could get to me.
Next, You are required to purchase insurance before you go but your insurance will NOT pay for the initial hospital bill (cost $1500). AXA was the company we were required to purchase from and THEY decided that my injuries ( a plate and 8 screws and I was told not to walk on it for 3 months) were not severe enough to bring me back to the states. (Note: my commute from to the university was a 5 min walk to the tram, a 30 min tram ride and another 5 min walk to the university) It took my mother writhing a letter to my University President to get me home. My home school is my savior. MSU used their own insurance to fly my mom over to assist me to get home. Due to my injuries the cost to fly me home would have been somewhere around $10K.

Also, You should be warned that there is a STRICK no refund policy. If you are injured you WILL NOT get a full refund for your trip. I was there for 2 weeks (4 days in Prague, 4 days in the hospital and 1 week against my will) and we are liable for approx 40% of program costs.

Finally, ISA continues to tell me that I chose to leave the program. I was not in a cast and the commute was not only difficult but dangerous. Their answer to my situation was to offer me a condensed class schedule but that did nothing for how I was going to get back and forth to the university. They still do not seem to understand that.

The true character of a person/company is measured in bad times not good and in my opinion this company failed and they are backed by an insurance company that cares more about money than caring for the student it covers.

Disclaimer: **** this review site requires that you put in a score for all areas I rated academics a ten because it would not be fair to rate something low that I did not take part in and there is no N/A button.**

Although everything about traveling abroad was unique from the food to the culture, something unique to my experience definitely has to be the friends that I’ve made. I was lucky to have met people that I clicked with immediately and got along with really well, they made my time abroad enjoyable and memorable. I still keep in touch with most of them and hope to see them again soon!
One memory that sticks out in particular is when we went to the DMZ as part of the TEAN orientation. It was undoubtedly one of the most remarkable excursions during my time in Korea. Being able to look out in the distance at such a place I’ve read so much about was surreal.

A word of advice to future participants: don’t pack as much! I didn’t listen to this advice thinking I needed everything I packed but I really didn’t. Packing half as much as you think you need is the way to go. As for how studying abroad impacted my life after my time abroad, I was able to make significant progress in learning Korean by immersing myself in the culture and the language for 5 months. I’m grateful to TEAN for giving me the opportunity to experience my heritage at the roots and for easily the most memorable semester of my undergraduate career.

Choosing The Education Abroad Network was one of the best decisions I ever made. With TEAN I never felt lost during the application process because they helped me every step of the way. From organizing my visa, flight plans, school credit transfers, and even packing advice they were just a quick email or phone call away. Through TEAN I also got to experience a homestay where I lived with a Thai family and truly immersed myself in Thai culture. We also had Thai buddies throughout the semester that took us around Chiang Mai and taught us about their traditions. There is never a dull moment in Chiang Mai since there is so much to explore! What I loved the most about Chiang Mai was that it had both scenic and cultural beauty. On the weekends, you can travel or hang out in the city and visit various museums, temples, markets, local restaurants, and hiking and outdoor activities. Our first few days in Thailand were spent at the Elephant Nature Park and the beautiful temple Wat Phra That Doi Suthep. Everyone in the program was so friendly and welcoming. The professors at Chiang Mai University were also very involved in making sure we got the most out of our time in Chiang Mai in and out of the classroom. They took us on a lot of field trips to different temples and art museums. TEAN also took us to the Golden Triangle as a school trip where we visited tea plantations and opium museums. They also took us to Krabi on our Spring Break where we got to go snorkeling and have dinner on the beach. Through TEAN I was able to make a lot of friends and have many once in a lifetime experiences which I could not imagine getting in any other program. I hope to go back someday to create more lasting memories!

This past summer I went to Chiang Mai, Thailand with The Education Abroad Network as one of their summer interns. They connected me with the organization Arts Relief International. I was one of their teaching artists as well as an office assistant. Getting to work abroad was one of the most amazing, challenging, and life changing experiences I have ever had. The TEAN staff did a great job facilitating the internship and connecting me with the group that was the best fit for me. The internship taught me a lot about myself, what I value in a working environment and as a human being. I got to work with a diverse group of people both in the Arts Relief International office and during our arts based workshops. One of my favorite moments from this summer is that I got to lead a physical theater workshop with the Healing Family Foundation, which is a group of mentally disabled adults. We did exercises related to movement and decorated animal masks and moved as our animals that we created. It was so much fun and I was thrilled to do something relevant to my future career. I will be forever grateful I had this opportunity and I won't soon forget it!

This summer I interned abroad in Sydney, Australia. It was the most amazing and eye opening experience of my life. My experience was unique because I spent two months exploring Sydney in addition to building my resume with my internship. My internship was in the healthcare field, at two different Sydney Children's Hospitals through the Starlight Children's Foundation. I worked in their "express rooms", where I did activities with the kids such as arts & crafts or played video games. I as well went on wards with the captains for the patients who were bedridden. It was an amazing and an eye opening experience. I learned so much from my internship that will help me throughout finishing school and my future career. My excursions in Sydney ranged from having a surfing lesson at Bondi beach to taking a yoga class at Bondi Icebergs Club to attending a Rugby game. TEAN is more than helpful with giving suggestions about what to do throughout Sydney, as well as giving advice on where to travel throughout Australia. They planned two great excursions and were always available if I had any questions about my internship.