by Samantha Windows
Regional Manager
Aberystwyth University
Oslovili sme zástupcov našich partnerských škol Scandinavian study, aby pre študentov napísali pár viet, ktoré by vám dodali odvahu do vašeho rozhodnutia študovať v zahraničí. Snáď sa to podarilo 🙂
When I speak to friends who have studied abroad, they always talk of how much it helped them become the person they are today. Studying abroad will change you forever, not only as a student, but also as a person. Your time overseas will teach you so much more than the degree you are studying, it gives you invaluable opportunities and an insight into a global perspective of the world. The experiences you have and the people you meet will be with your forever, the enriching experience of living in a different culture will enable you to see the world in a different way and meet people and discover things you may never have had the opportunity to before.
A massive benefit of studying in another country is that it is statistically proven to improve your earning potential for when you graduate! What more reason do you need!?! When employers have a pile of job applications in front of them and every single one of them has fantastic grades in a very good degree, the application that will stand out from the crowd will always be the one that is different, the one that has international experience, the one that took the risk and moved 2,000 km to a place they didn’t know and lived and studied there. It is that person that will have the interesting stories to tell, it is that person that will have experienced new and exciting things, it is that person that I would want to be sat next to at a dinner party!
Learn new languages, try new foods, see new places. Stepping out of your comfort zone to live in a foreign country is scary but it will give you the confidence to continue growing and pushing your limits when you return.
This is the only opportunity that you have to live in in another country in the safety of a campus or learning environment. I meet and speak to hundreds of students from all over the world who are planning their University experience and I’m always incredibly jealous as I would love to do it all over again. The 3 years I spend studying my degree at Aberystwyth University will always be some of the best years of my life. I travel in my spare time now as much as I possibly can, I am a strong believer that travelling to new places expands your horizons and builds character.
As part of my job I have the fantastic opportunity to know students through their whole university career. I’ll be with them right from the start nervously filling in the application wondering whether it will all be ok. I meet them at the airport welcoming them to our country, I see them wandering around our campus with friends heading to class, but, the best part is always when I see the student that I met in their own country all those years ago graduate with their graduation cap perched on their head and gown draped over their shoulders accepting their degree certificate on stage and their parents sat in the rows with beaming smiles on their faces. It is at that moment that I know that studying abroad is a fantastic opportunity and that student that took the big leap of faith and travelled abroad will have a whole host of opportunities ahead of them in the global world that we live in.