Why Study Abroad

I believe that studying abroad is a very vital part of every students college experience. College is all about transforming and transitioning students into independent and educated young adults. Therefore I believe that studying abroad is a key part of that transformation because it will allow, also in a way force, students to experience personal growth. Academically I expect to have first hand experience with working with managers and owners of businesses and seeing the daily routines that go on with a business. This will give me a good deal of experience in how to run a business and all that goes into it, which is what I strive to do one day. Also I expect to gain cultural and worldly experience which will enrich my knowledge of the world and ultimately aid me and becoming a more well rounded, open minded, and diverse individual. Just getting the chance to go to a foreign place that I find unfamiliar territory and having to live among people of a different culture and everyday belief system is so exciting! I will have to adapt to unfamiliar places and learn to accept and coexist with those of a different country and of diverse normalities.

I feel as though my Fafsa does not accurately reflect my family's ability to financially contribute to me studying abroad. At the time that the Fafsa was filled out (last December/January 2011), my mother was working. This no longer is the case and now my father is the only one that is able to support my sister and I through college. Therefore, due to the fact that my mother no longer has a job the Fafsa does not justly displaying my parents ability to help me financially with studying abroad.