How a Semester in Senegal Shaped our Lives

This post comes from Abroad101 friend and Guest Blogger Mairéad O’Grady, who currently resides in Washington, DC and works at The School for Ethics and Global Leadership as a French teacher and Residential Advisor. Inspired by her MSID semester in Senegal, Mairéad accepted a Grinnell Corps teaching position in Chiang Mai, Thailand in 2010, where she spent her first postgraduate year. Now back in America, her work focuses on helping motivated high school students shape themselves into ethical global leaders who create positive change in our world.

Seneglasses

Four years ago last month, I boarded an airplane full of strangers destined for Dakar, Senegal.  Most of my fellow passengers were dressed in the colorful garb so emblematic of West Africa, chattering in a language I could not yet recognize with babies slung gracefully across their backs.  The few who wore wide-eyed expressions and more familiar attire were my fellow study abroad students, and we gravitated to each other as we boarded, talking amongst ourselves while nervously imagining the next time we’d touch dry land. Continue reading

Top 4 Most Hardcore Study Abroad Programs

Abroad101’s vagabonding vixen, Tami Bolk, tells us about the Top 4 Most Extreme Study Abroad Programs.  Chuck Norris approved and fit for The Most Interesting Man in the World, these programs are sure to give you bada$$ bragging rights.


So you studied abroad.  Maybe you safaried in Kenya, hiked the Himalayas, or went scuba diving in the Great Barrier Reef.  Maybe your program let you explore 8 different cities in Europe, where you not only mastered your Scandinavian slang, but you sat kiddy-corner from that nearly-famous French actress (whose name you just can’t remember anymore)… oh, and you did all of this as a college Freshman. Ok, so maybe you’re a true baller if you really did all of that.  But for most that go abroad and think they’re the shiz for simply sipping a pint in the UK, it’s time to reconsider.  Check out this list of the Top 4 Most Hardcore Study Abroad programs and see how you measure up.

Continue reading

Going Undercover While Studying Abroad

Brought to you by Abroad101’s fashion aficionado, Will Cox.

They see you. You can’t hide. They know who you are.  You are a sophomore in high school traveling Europe with your family and everyone around you knows… you are a TOURIST.  First there is your mother, power walking along in her Goretex pants, swishing more than Michael Jordan in the finals.  Then there is your little brother, who insisted on arriving upon European soil stomping in Air Force Ones.  Finally there is your father, strapped with his ultra-practical fanny pack synched just loose enough not to separate his legs from his torso.  For you, the travel-lover in training who just wanted to pass for a local, it was pure torture.

Fanny packs are retro, but not rad.

Fear not however.  Today, five years later, you are returning to Europe alone; a college Junior studying abroad.  Equipped with the following fashion tips, you can get a head start on your transformation, allowing an entire semester to look the part and play out your fantasy of life as a true European.

Continue reading