Santa Clara University

Email:
rbrady@scu.edu

Rachel Brady '07

Peer Advisor

Reflections on my Study Abroad Experience

My fall quarter in Florence was definitely one of the defining times in my college career at Santa Clara. I learned so much about myself and about other cultures. Living with a host family was so much fun and I learned so much from them that I wouldn’t have otherwise learned about Italian culture. My study abroad experience widened my perspective on my daily life in America. Traveling to Europe for the first time and experiencing the richness of culture that embodies every European city opened my eyes to such new ways of life.

Not only did studying abroad help me to gain wider perspectives on a different culture, but it also developed me as an individual. The most significant development I experienced from going abroad was gaining a great amount of self-reliance and self-confidence; there is no feeling like looking back on your abroad experience and realizing that you picked up and moved to a new country, made new friends both from all over America and from your study abroad city, and in my case, learned a whole new language while in that country.

I was extremely nervous about the idea of living in Italy for four months as I knew none of the language and had never been to Europe before. My biggest piece of advice to students looking into studying abroad is to not let that nervousness you might feel hinder you from actually going through with studying abroad. As soon as I arrived in Italy my program took great care of me and my transition was easy.