Hello! My name is Valeria Manzano Ballesteros, and I am a first gen Latina/Hispanic student at the University of Oregon. This is my last year at UO, and I am ready and excited to see what the future holds for me! I'm looking forward to highlighting my experience abroad through my identities as a first-time traveler, female, and my ethnic identity.
When most people think of computer science majors, they picture us hunched over laptops in dimly lit rooms, but here I am in sunny Melbourne, Australia! My name is Calvin, and I chose to do an internship through the GEO GlobalWorks program for several reasons. One being my mom, who worked in international education for AFS, an exchange program. She passed away from brain cancer when I was young. She spoke constantly about the transformative power of international experience.
Hello blog!
Where do I begin! I believe my last post was a bit fire and brimstone, because I was not really feeling great here on my internship experience, honestly.
The first semester of my year in Svalbard has finished, and I simply cannot believe how fast it has gone by. It feels like I blinked and suddenly the sun set and polar night started, the sky lighting up with the moon and northern lights rather than the sun. But time truly doesn't go by any faster than when you are having the time of your life. I am so excited that the semester ending doesn't mean the end of my time in Svalbard, because I am studying at UNIS until June.
So, frankly, my perspective has changed quite a bit since my last blog post. My time in Japan previously both traveling and as a student did not prepare me for the Japanese workplace in the way I thought it would. This was to be expected, but here I am. There's been a lot of challenges for me in terms of feeling like I can't be myself at all and very much attempting to put myself into the typical office worker box in order to 'conform' because otherwise I feel like I will be scolded or something bad will happen to me.
From advising at my desk to a personal experience: How an advisor visit to a GEO Center Transformed my study abroad advising
Traveling abroad for the first time is exciting—but it can also feel overwhelming. As someone who recently returned from Costa Rica with the GEO Staff Grant program, I want to share a few insights and tips to help future students feel confident, prepared, and ready to embrace the adventure ahead.
