Sandy Tupper, the assistant director of Education Abroad, works with students from the moment they pick a program to the moment they come back. Over the years, she has seen more than a thousand students find their program abroad. 

“Just watching the difference in these students is amazing. Seeing what they’re getting out of it, a lot of them are making lifelong friends," Tupper said. "A lot of them, the confidence is a key takeaway."

No matter the destination, Tupper said that for students who were able to study abroad, it is often their proudest moment in college.

Summer Sports Down Under

Kinesiology senior Maddie Nosil went on a four-week program about sports in Australia. Nosil said studying abroad was something she always wanted to do, and with the option to take a kinesiology class, this was the perfect opportunity.

“I’ve done so much traveling this year, and I think that Australia was just the cherry on top for me,” said Nosil. “When I left, I could see myself living here.”

Despite the work she did prior to the course and the work done in class, Nosil said the atmosphere of Australian sports was unlike anything she expected. While attending games and tours of various sports teams’ headquarters, Nosil and her cohort became immersed in the opening ceremony, in which Aboriginal peoples would dress in traditional clothing and play music accompanied by drums for about five minutes to demonstrate their origins.

Outside of the games, Nosil said she went through her own transformation overseas. Nosil said she became more outgoing than usual, befriending almost everyone in her 35-person cohort.

While on the program, Nosil also frequently attended shows that were part of a month-long light and music festival at Sydney Harbor called Vivid. Also in their free time, Nosil and her friends took a weekend trip her and her friends went up north to Cairns, Australia and snorkeled on the Great Barrier Reef.

“I learned a lot about myself," Nosil said. "I feel like I definitely grew a lot and it was in a positive way."

Global Cross-Culture Marketing: Case Study of K-Culture

Digital storytelling senior Ethan Viaches and hospitality business sophomore Song Nhi Doan had the opportunity to go to South Korea on MSU's K-Culture-focused marketing program. Viaches said the trip shifted his perspective on global culture and fostered his personal growth.

“I honestly think that we needed more time there just because there was so much new,” he said.

The program's group spent most of their time in Seoul visiting businesses such as Nongshim Co. and Daiso. Outside of these scheduled trips for the course, students were allowed to experience the city and its culture for themselves. Doan mentioned the contrast between the peaceful vibes of local villages and the bustling movement closer to hotels and malls.

“Every area we went to, it’s just like a different city to me because I feel like each area they have different vibes that they bring,” she said. 

Viaches was especially interested in a cafe he stumbled upon that doubled as a museum for the popular K-pop group, BTS. He and his friends discovered that the building briefly served as the band's home base. Viaches explained that each level of the cafe had a different purpose: one level was the cafe, one was a dedicated museum where visitors could see where the band had slept and the other was where visitors could write letters and put them on the wall.

In addition to the new skills and perspectives Doan learned from the course, she said she gained new friends within the hospitality business major she would never have known before.

Outside of course-provided tours, Doan recalled a time when she and her friends got lost in the mall and were unable to find an exit. Security was able to overcome the language barrier by communicating through a translator app to help her find a way out.

In his exploration of the city, Viaches was surprised by how natural it felt for his friends and the locals to laugh and joke together, bonding over comedic things happening around them.

“I felt trapped when I was at MSU, I felt like I didn’t want to do many things, and then when this opportunity came around and I went over to Korea, I felt like all the chains had been taken off,” Viaches said. “I have more appreciation for just everything in general; it really does change who you are.”

Budapest Semester in Mathematics Education

Secondary math education senior Brendan Tribu participated in a six-week-long program through St. Olaf College in Minnesota. This course was Tribu’s first experience in Europe and, despite his nervousness about traveling, he was excited for an educational experience outside of the United States.

Tribu spent the first week of the program getting to know the city. He quickly learned that the social norm in Europe is to keep to oneself, which was eye-opening and taught him to not immediately assume someone was ignoring him.

Tribu hoped that this experience would help him when he becomes a teacher, helping him to better understand students from all backgrounds. Through this program, not only did he take classes, but he also had the opportunity to teach classes, something he had not yet done at MSU.

“I feel like having the experience of going abroad and just interacting with students, especially because there was a language barrier, it was definitely good,” Tribu said. “It was just good for us to find ways to communicate and work together productively.”

Tribu said that even though there were no other MSU students, the friendships he made during his six weeks in Budapest were incredibly strong.

 “I remember one of our last nights out, we were out at a food truck, having food together and some of the people were shedding tears and hugging as we were saying our final goodbyes,” Tribu said.

Tupper said that every student's experience helps to diversify MSU's global community and allows students to better connect with international students.

"I love sitting in a classroom when you have students who have had these different experiences," Tupper said. "When they contribute, you learn so much from their perspective."