Summer on the Mediterranean Coast: Barcelona & Sorrento

Be open to trying new things and really immersing yourself into the culture. Once you go abroad you'll realize that not everything is the same as to what you are used to. I did a lot of research before I left so I knew what to expect when I arrived. Don't be grossed out by some of the things you see on menus (if it's on the menu people must enjoy eating it!).

An average week would involve class Monday-Thursday and explore the city in between or after classes. At least once a week the program would have an activity planned so I would attend that! On some nights my friends and I would go to the bars and clubs. On the weekends I would travel to different cities within the countries or surrounding countries.

My biggest fear was not being able to get around the cities on my own! The program gave us plenty of information on how to use the public transportation and learning about the different parts of each city. After about a week in each country, I had transportation routes down!

Another fear I had was not making any friends to explore with. I had gone on this study abroad on my own (terrifying) but the program does orientations and gives you plenty of experience with meeting new people!

My last fear was the language barrier. I had very little experience with speaking Spanish. When I landed in Barcelona almost everyone I talked to understood and spoke English but when I meet my host mom she knew little to no English and I only knew about 10% of what she was saying to me! I was so scared to be spending a month with someone I couldn't communicate with. But thankfully Google Translate was invented!! She had taught me plenty of Spanish phrases and words that were extremely useful throughout Spain. Don't be afraid to learn new things!

I can now multitask much better than before and I have learned many more phrases and words in professional English. I also and working as a manager in my position and in the past I have just been assisting a manager by focusing on executing actions and now I have grown to plan more long-term actions for a team of people.

One of my mentees who took classes and did an internship came to Barcelona last fall and decided she wanted to spend her free time traveling around Spain. She went to many large cities but also visited small towns and villages in Spain. When she returned to Barcelona she told us she better understood the diversity within Spain which was very important and useful for understanding the political situation in Barcelona.

I would do a Spring semester Hispanic Studies program at UPF. UPF is one of the top universities here and one of the main goals is study abroad is to understand the history, culture, people, and civilization so there is not a better way to do that than taking classes on those subjects. I also would want to be in classes with locals and this program gives the most local interaction.

We really focus on cultural immersion, of course, we offer housing and classes but we really try to focus on culture and language acquisition. Additionally, our mentor program is unique and makes a big impact on our students because they have a local guide and point person that can help them as they mature on this experience. I did not have that in my study abroad program, so this is very rewarding.

The biggest factor in a successful company is people and the staff. You can have a lot of money and a big office, but if the people don't understand the goals of the company and are not passionate about achieving them then nothing will get done. It is important to personalize the goals and make the company goals into team goals that are achievable.