CAPA Shanghai: Study & Intern Abroad

I had the opportunity to study abroad in China while taking an internship in the marketing field. The food, the culture, the people, and all the friends made my experience unforgivable. I traveled to Huangshan, Xi'an, Beijing, Suzhou, Guilin and many other beautiful areas.
I became more open minded with different cultures and it's traditions. I feel more confident with my Mandarin proficiency, and traveling alone.

The opportunities Shanghai provided me to go out and adventure were invigorating, not to mention CAPA provides its members metro cards, so I never had the worry of transportation money stop me from traveling all over the city. I was able to go to several museums, Shanghai fashion weekend, sporting events, and even got to ascend the Shanghai Tower, which is the second tallest building in the world, but has the highest observation deck and fastest elevator in the world, just to name a few of the remarkable things I was able to experience in Shanghai. And the adventures did not end there! An amazing aspect of studying abroad with CAPA is the hosted excursions they provided. I was able to see the Great Wall of China and Tiananmen Square, among other sights while on a trip to Beijing that CAPA organized for us. Our many excursions included different cities in China and interesting tours of locations in Shanghai. The trips took me to alluring destinations that I wanted to see, and, even better, all the logistical nightmares were taken care of for me! CAPA is an attractive program to study abroad with as it provides planned excursions, but also gives you an incredible amount of independence otherwise. If members are not comfortable being independent just yet, CAPA can provide suggestions of what to do on weekends, and can set them up with students from the host university to accompany them on excursions or errands! CAPA allows its members to be as independent as they want to be, and this adaptability really allowed me to make the most of my study abroad. It was comforting for me to know I had a resource that could help me, but also had the freedom to choose for myself what I wanted to do. Study abroad is all about stepping out of your comfort zone, but it is important to not stretch too far, to be scared rather than compelled. You absorb the most when you are uninhibited by your own reservations. Of course, a study abroad program is not just about the monuments you visit, but also the people you meet. I formed a strong bond with the other CAPA members I traveled with, making all my travels more memorable since I was having fun with my companions while experiencing these amazing new things. I also made friends with several people who lived in China. This made the semester ending and returning to the United States that much harder, but I am spectacularly thankful for the time we did have together. I personally chose to study abroad in Shanghai to improve my Mandarin language skills, so I was able to practice speaking Mandarin with my Chinese companions, and they took me to some of their favorite places in Shanghai that I might not have seen otherwise! I never felt alone in Shanghai, even though I was thousands of miles away from my familiar friends, and because of that I never felt homesick. Rather, I was constantly in the moment, excited to spend time with new people and see new things with them, which made my experience abroad that much more fulfilling. When I was not exploring or going to my classes, I was able to participate in an incredible internship thanks to the CAPA program. I was interning at an English school with students aged two to six years old. Talk about adorable! There, I was able to gain relevant skills, as well as experience what working in Chinese business was like. I have dreams to one day work abroad, so this was immeasurably helpful for me to ensure it was a good fit for me. I was grateful for the chance to actually help others through an internship, rather than just talk about how I plan to help others while sitting in a lecture. Furthermore, I was able to experience a different dimension of Chinese culture, which allowed me to learn more about the society around me and immerse myself as totally as I could. I did not study abroad just to see, I studied abroad to learn, to change. Shanghai was easily the best experience of my life.

I was ecstatic to have the chance to study abroad in China the fall of 2015. It was a part of the world that virtually none of my peers at my home institution had been to, and I was looking forward to the challenge of the language barrier as well as the major cultural differences I would face. While I did face several hardships when it came to the dietary change and the often limited resources on the ECNU campus, Shanghai was an incredibly exciting, safe, "foreigner-friendly" city with so much to offer to a young traveler much like myself up for an adventure.

Where to begin? Well, I was a part of the first group that CAPA brought to Shanghai, and it was clear from the beginning that they were unprepared for our arrival. Perhaps it will get better, but perhaps not. The internships offered were uninspiring and did not fit most of our group's desired career paths, even after extensive communication before the program that they would. Don't believe them when they go on and on about their "organic" placement process, because group-of-8 interviews on the second day in China with two companies (with our majors ranging from Finance to Marketing to Chemical Engineering) was anything but organic. Communication was scarce throughout the program, even to the point that we were informed of a typhoon's imminent arrival only 24 hours prior, even though it was at Category 3 hurricane strength. Problems went unsolved and everyone in our group genuinely did not like or trust our group leader. The weather, it must be noted, is awful in Shanghai during the Summer but that is not under CAPA's control. The one bright spot was our university, East China Normal; the university staff and our instructor were great, and I would recommend them, but even that could have been arranged through different means. Take note.