Abroad101 Student of the Week #29 – Ashley Broadus

Ashley Broadus - Florence

Ashley BroadusThis weeks Abroad101 winner is Ashley Broadus from Georgia State University. Ashley is a senior who is studying TV/Film and hopes to continue working with this medium for the rest of her life. She has already started making her way into the world of TV/Film by being the post production lead/manager of her university’s television station. Ashley also is an aspiring artist, having an art minor and practicing a form of art called printmaking. On top of all of this, in her free time, Ashely draws comics!

Ashley has always wanted to study abroad and finally has a chance to do it. And what better place for an artist to go then to Europe, Florence to be exact! As a filmmaker and artist in her final year of college, basking in the culture of Europe for several months is just what she is looking for! We think this experience will benefit her future career, don’t you?! 

The Abroad101 Student of the Week initiative awards a student who created a Mission for a study abroad program on GoEnnounce with a donation to their fundraiser. Learn more about this partnership from Abroad101 CEO Mark Shay and GoEnnounce co-founder Melissa Davis here.

We’re making weekly donations to studyabroad fundraisers! We hope you can help us assist these students in reaching their goals to make their travel dreams a reality.  To find out more about studying in Florence, like Ashley, visit the Abroad101 program page.

Stay tuned for our next Abroad101 Student of the Week!

– See more at: http://blog.goennounce.com/abroad101-student-of-the-week-0029-ashley-broadus/

Abroad101 Announces “The Study Abroad Advantage”

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Join the Study Abroad Advantage on LinkedIn

Putting the Ideals of Study Abroad into Practice, Abroad101 Announces “The Study Abroad Advantage”

International education software company extends its platform to help students advance their careers.

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New York, NY (PRWEB) October 06, 2014

Abroad101 has launched an initiative called “The Study Abroad Advantage.” Designed to help college students gain an edge in the job market after graduation, this collaborative effort involves students, college advisors and prospective employers. Students start their Advantage with a capstone summary of their education abroad published on Abroad101. This review is logo_prwebthen shared via social networks and other outlets with prospective employers who are looking for students with international experience, foreign language skills and the maturity that comes from being overseas.

Study Abroad is widely considered advantageous in the job market. Mark Shay, CEO of Abroad101.com stated, “The goal of The Study Abroad Advantage is to put this theory into practice by providing a platform for students to showcase how they have grown and matured while overseas. For employers, The Study Abroad Advantage is a place for HR departments, hiring managers and recruiters to get a glimpse into the personality and character of the student as a prospective employee.”

Connecting the two is a group on Linkedin called “The Study Abroad Advantage.” The group was created on August 30 and was joined by over 250 students in the first 5 days. Students in the group link to their study abroad review from their Linkedin profile as a reference point, while employers and job recruiters use the group to connect and network with these stand-out students.

Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas, is an early supporter of The Study Abroad Advantage. Trinity has a vibrant study abroad program and requires returning students to complete a program evaluation through Abroad 101. Nancy Ericksen, Assistant Director for Study Abroad in the International Programs Office at Trinity, says, “The future is here. With the reality of technological advances and a growing global economy, I believe that the student with international experience has an advantage in preparing for the world of tomorrow. Using The Study Abroad Advantage, our students can showcase their experience and use it in opening contact with employers – leveraging that to start their career.”

Employers are increasingly turning to the web to investigate candidates, discover how well they communicate and present themselves added Martin Tillman, President of Global Career Compass, an international consulting practice focusing on the impact of study abroad on student career development: “There is much evidence (in research conducted by both academics, private companies and research organizations) that the value-added of international education experience to a students’ career development is diminished if students cannot clearly articulate the impact of that experience. The Study Abroad Advantage is a nice way for education abroad advisors and career service counselors to harmonize their professional skills with technology to enhance the value of study abroad for their students.”

The Linkedin group is just the beginning according to Abroad101’s Shay: “We are looking forward to working with university career centers and placement offices as well as large employers to find innovative ways to help these creative, ambitious and now mature students turn their real-world experiences to leap forward in their career development. The core philosophy of The Study Abroad Advantage is to provide a platform to channel the energy and idealism fostered by international education into organizations in need of talent.”

About Abroad101
Founded in 2007, Abroad101 is the first and largest study abroad review website that also gives universities a software tool for evaluating their exchange, faculty-led, third-party provider, volunteer and internship programs. Focusing on American college students looking for a semester or term abroad, this innovative system connects past and future students, parents, advisors and program providers. As part of the platform, the Abroad101 directory of study abroad programs is the most comprehensive database in the field today.

Read this Press Release on PR Web

Top 4 Ways to Include High School Study Abroad on Your College Resume

Close-up of an 'Approved' College Application letter.

So, you’ve come back from your amazing high school study abroad program, and now you’re basking in the glow of all your wonderful experiences and memories – the places you saw, the people you met, and (let’s be honest) the many, many crepes you devoured for both breakfast AND dinner. And while you may not exactly be ready to think about those pesky impending college apps yet, it’s likely that the time to fill them out will come much sooner rather than later. But, luckily for you, did you know that high school study abroad can really set you apart from the crowd when it comes to college admissions? It’s simply all about how you translate your experience into practical terms that look resume-worthy – for instance, stating that you “took a language course in Spain” isn’t as impressive as saying that you “improved oral proficiency in Spanish and gained a higher level of overall fluency”. Read on for the top 4 ways to include high school study abroad on your college resume!

  • You acquired the ability to speak a second language. Second language acquisition is rapidly becoming the norm for college applicants everywhere – when French is the official language of 35 countries, nearly 45 million Americans speak Spanish as their first language, and Mandarin easily has the most native speakers worldwide, it’s no surprise that this would be the case. The fact of the matter is, admissions boards are getting more and more used to seeing applicants that have intimate knowledge of second and even third languages, so including this on your resume is a no-brainer (just be sure to go into detail about your rate of improvement during your time abroad, what you specifically studied and how this contributed to your knowledge of the language, etc.)
  • You’re now on your way to becoming a true global leader. Whether you realize it or not, study abroad imbues you with some truly valuable global leadership skills – other than being proficient in a foreign language, these include acquiring necessary cultural empathy and the ability to make decisions through a global lens (all of which are note-worthy buzz words for college admissions boards). Get ready to ride the global leadership train all the way to your top school pick when you include these skills on your resume!
  • You increased your level of cultural awareness and tolerance. One of the best things about study abroad is that it forces you to become open to other ways of life. In today’s globalized world, this level of heightened cross-cultural awareness and tolerance is crucial – admissions boards want to see this demonstrated, in print. Immersion programs in particular (so, programs in which you live with local families and speak and hear the language constantly) are excellent ways to acquire these skills.
  • You overcame language and cultural barriers. Learning to successfully navigate your way through a conversation in Italian (rather than, ahem, faking it) is a huge victory in itself – and, bonus, this is also something that can translate into some serious communication skills development on your resume! Think about it: overcoming different cultural and language barriers likely required you to use communication skills you didn’t even know you had. Intercultural communication is in itself an in-demand skill, but learning to communicate across cultures also results in a higher level of assertiveness and self-confidence – hello, leadership skills!).

About the Author: Justine Harrington is the Admissions Director for SPI Study Abroad, a leading provider of language and cultural immersion summer programs for high school students. She is also the author of the SPI Blog.

Abroad101 Student of the Week #28 – Courtney Seyl – Studying in London England

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image of Courtney Seyl

Abroad101.com Student of the Week, Courtney Seyl.

This week, our Abroad101 Student of the Week award goes to Courtney Seyl! Courtney is a sophomore at the University of Puget Sound with a double major in theater and psychology. Her passion for theater runs deep and she stays very busy at school by directing and designing lighting for shows! Her favorite part of theater is behind the scenes and she hopes to pursue a future career in directing, lighting, or dramaturgy. She does love her psychology courses though, so is also considering going to graduate school for forensic psychology or social psychology.

To help see if theater is the right carer choice for her, Courtney is planning on heading to London, England to study theater and theater history. She will be attending the IES London Theater Studies Program where she is hoping to enhance her skills in the theatrical world. Even though her trip is not until next fall we had to admire her determination to get ahead, which only proves to how badly she wants this experience. Happy filming, Courtney!

The Abroad101 Student of the Week initiative awards a student who created a Mission for a study abroad program on GoEnnounce with a donation to their fundraiser. Learn more about this partnership from Abroad101 CEO Mark Shay and GoEnnounce co-founder Melissa Davis here.

We’re making weekly donations to #studyabroad fundraisers! We hope you can help us assist these students in reaching their goals to make their travel dreams a reality. To find out more about studying in London, like Courtney, visit the Abroad101 program page.

Stay tuned for our next Abroad101 Student of the Week!

– See more at: http://blog.goennounce.com/abroad101-student-of-the-week-0028-courtney-seyl/

Social Media & Web Tools for Marketing and Advising

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ISEP Conference

Thursday, November 13, 2:15 – 3:30

Potomac Ballroom D

As International Offices we are dedicated to advancing and internationalization plan because we believe in the transformative nature of global experience for students.  How much of that plan is influenced by our students and how often are we willing to meet our students on their own terms?  This session will explore the importance of leveraging student feedback in planning.  It will also challenge the traditional office-based approach to advising and demonstrate web-based platforms for engagement.

Presenters:

Joseph Burrow, ISEP

Duleep Deosthale, Admissions Table

Mark Shay, Abroad101  – Download presentation:  ISEP Session – Social Media

http://isepconference.wordpress.com/

Advisors – Reviews are Social Media

Social media doodles elementsWhen we think of social media in education abroad we generally think of brief and compelling messaging like posts, tweets, blogs and photos. With social media, we also think how we might like, follow, re-tweet or pin other peoples activity to stay active in front of our target audience. As promoters of education abroad we often struggle with just what to put into our networks and yet, one of the best forms of social media content is often overlooked, that of the study abroad review.

Being in the business of collecting and leveraging student reviews, Abroad101 has found that reviews make great social media content. As with other social media, a review comes from the student’s voice. A study abroad program review contains both quantitative data (ratings on a 0-5 star scale) and qualitative data like comments, descriptive passages and feedback on various program features. Reviews on Abroad101 are especially designed for social media sharing (syndication) as each review has its own unique web page (URL) and has its own comment section below the review.

In addition to the home university and the program name, the Abroad101 reviews have more than 35 other fields including a descriptive title created by the student and an introductory passage around the theme – “was it worthwhile?” Sharing these reviews with your followers is great Social Media content and a good way to highlight the success of recent education abroad alumni and get other communities on your campus to recognize the success of study abroad students.

Students are increasingly doing their own promotion of their reviews, sharing them with their friends, those who helped them into the program and those who will help that student into a career. One example of this self-promotion is the initiative called “The Study Abroad Advantage” where a group has been established on Linkedin to help study abroad alumni leverage their study abroad experience in their career development. Students in the Group are linking their reviews from their Linkedin profiles and using them to showcase their abilities, talents and experiences to get ahead in the job market.

Education abroad offices on campus should consider using these reviews to advance study abroad on their campus. Reviews will prompt discussion and facilitate the exchange of ideas about individual programs, program types and destinations. A number of offices already follow and endorse Abroad101’s social media activity on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram accounts. In addition to this, posting your own highlights of reviews in you social media can help raise awareness and understanding of how education abroad influences your campus. We encourage you to create social media out of our social media and make posts based on the reviews on Abroad101.

As an advisor, reviews from your institution can be pushed to you for consideration. For those advisors with account on Abroad101, each review from a student at your institution generates an email when it is published. You can find the links to those programs by logging into your account or by looking at the summary page of reviews for your institution. For those of you with a little more computer support, Abroad101 can push your student reviews to you through something called an API (Computer to computer gateway), or you can draw them through a RSS feed that we publish.

However you collect and reference our reviews, we hope you’ll see the benefit of taking the review title, summary paragraph and web link as social media content and use it to advance study abroad on your campus. The Abroad101 team is happy to work with you in finding better ways to network and connect and is available to get you using reviews in your social media marketing strategy.

You might also be interested in reading the slides for the session called  Ten ways program evaluations can Advance Study Abroad on Campus

Read here for more information and presentation slides on the ISEP Conference in Virginia

 

What Type of Study Abroad Program is Right for You?

Young pretty business woman dreaming about vacation and her tripAt first, Study abroad seems simple enough: just pick a place to go, find someone to take you there, apply and mail some money. Unfortunately, it is a lot more complex than that because for most students, study abroad is not part of the standard curriculum at a college, but an option. Additionally, credit hours earned outside the student’s home university aren’t treated the same as normal credit hours. The process will seem a little daunting at first, but by all accounts it’s worthwhile and many students report their study abroad experience had the greatest impact on them during their entire time at college.

To accommodate the growing interest in study abroad, universities and program providers continue to introduce creative ways to work study abroad into a college experience. One way is to study abroad when students are normally on a break because that way, the student doesn’t have to disrupt their curriculum and course progression. These off-season programs include:

  • January Sessions, or J-Term, are 3 or 4 week mini-semesters at the start of the year designed to squeeze a single course into the end of your Christmas break
  • May or Maymester is a single course over a 3 or 4 week mini-semester that follows Spring finals and finish before the usual summer sessions
  • Summer Sessions – 4 to 10 week programs that can offer one to three academic courses, sometimes broken into two sessions (Summer 1 and Summer 2)

Another consideration is what will be studied and how that relates to an academic major. If the university runs their own study abroad programs, students are probably in luck as the academic credits come from the home university and also the grades will show up directly in the home university transcript and satisfy requirements for the major. Bringing outside credits to a university Registrar will need a course equivalency. Keep in mind that the grade for those courses will not transfer, only Pass/Fail status will.

Since not too many universities offer a full array of courses abroad, so they offer alternatives, either through exchange partnerships or ties with study abroad provider companies. In these cases, programs offered by universities overseas are packaged for American students and offer credit on the student’s home university transcript as transfer credit. Exchange programs are generally most affordable as the student has to take on many more of the program components and while overseas will generally not have as rich a support network as those programs offered through the provider companies. In the study abroad program directories from Abroad101, these exchange programs are identified with the title of Direct Enrollment & Exchange. The programs offered at that same school by provider companies can be viewed in a second tab. Those provider companies offer a host of extra services and support services and can really help students navigate the complexities of an education abroad experience. For those students willing the take the challenge, exchange programs are a great option and the foreign university will have student support. The American study abroad student will be treated like an international student and will likely find themselves in a mix of students from other countries as well as those from the host country. As a tip, try typing the names of the foreign university in the search box in the menu bar on Abroad101.

Another popular option, especially in the off-season comes from Faculty-led programs operated by the home university. Faculty-led programs are growing in popularity and as the title suggests, are lead by a professor from the home university who leads an exploration of their area of interest, immersing students into a specific themed program. Think of it as an elective course on steroids. Faculty-led programs are generally groups of students from the home university and the programs often include organized travel, multiple destinations and tours. Faculty-led programs will offer home university credit, but because they are offered off-season, may not be eligible for standard Financial Aid.

Before committing to a program type, we suggest speaking with both the academic advisor as well as the education abroad office on campus. Consider all options when it comes to transfer credit, financial aid and your degree progression. Ask lots of questions so that you fully understand your options. There’s a program for everyone, once you understand what type of program interests you we suggest you use the advanced program search on Abroad101 to help find and use the reviews to better compare and understand the possibilities.

 

 

 

Top Abroad101 Pages

Wondering what’s the easiest way to get to what you’re looking for at Abroad101.com.

The following are a few of our top pages.

study-abroad-programs-page

Find a Study Abroad Program  –

https://www.studyabroad101.com/study-abroad-programs

Volunteer Abroad Programs  –

https://www.studyabroad101.com/volunteer-abroad-programs

Internship Abroad Programs  –

https://www.studyabroad101.com/internship-abroad-programs

Intensive Language Abroad Programs  –

https://www.studyabroad101.com/intensive-language-abroad-programs

High School Abroad Programs  –

https://www.studyabroad101.com/high-school-abroad-programs

Gap Year Abroad Programs  –

https://www.studyabroad101.com/gap-year-abroad-programs