I will always tell people to do a Year Abroad
Having the opportunity to study abroad in the United States is probably one of the best (if not the best) experience I have been lucky enough to be a part of and I’ll always be grateful for that. For my third university year, I flew to Washington DC to start my adventure in Fredericksburg, Virginia where I attended the University of Mary Washington (UMW).
Little did I know then how much my life changed as a result of this experience. For starters, being an international student already gave me bonus points because people were so interested to get to know me and my story, so this made it all the much easier to integrate and make friends. Moreover, UMW have a fantastic international students support team. They welcome you from the get-go and continue to make sure you’re okay throughout the year – I was so impressed with how much they make you feel like you’re at home, I was never homesick!
There are so many opportunities to engage you in American College life – including a sorority! Myself and a few others decided to throw ourselves into the American culture and experience what it was like to rush for a sorority – needless to say there is a lot more involved than just social events, including philanthropy, history of ‘Greek life’ and creating tight bonds with your sorority sisters. This is most definitely the year where you try new experiences and sign up to things you may otherwise not try, like I decided to join club lacrosse where I made lifelong friends, and will now continue the sport in Reading during my final year!
There are so many memories and moments to choose from, it is hard to single out a few as we really did make the most of every day we got out there. This includes visiting other colleges, going to New York for Thanksgiving, Cancun for Spring Break, attending concerts in and around DC and even the little things like supporting your friends in their rugby and basketball games, which were always so atmospheric and exciting!
My advice is to genuinely make the most of every moment you have because you won’t regret it! At the end of my course, myself and a few others took the opportunity to travel, which I never would have been able to do if it weren’t for having a year abroad. My favourite part of this was going to Toronto and seeing Niagara Falls – as a Geography student this was a fangirling moment! Other places included Miami, Charlotte, Philadelphia and Atlanta.
I feel like an experience like this shapes you as a person. I am most definitely more confident in myself, more independent and I have learnt to not shy away from opportunities and step out of my comfort zone every once in a while – and I am proud of that and extremely grateful for this experience in so many different ways.
Additionally, I have to be thankful for the Turing Scheme – without this it would have been difficult to make the most of being abroad whilst also living in the American lifestyle! I would always and will always tell people to do a Year Abroad. Not a huge amount of people share that experience but everyone that does knows it was the best decision of their life.
