SSA Education Abroad

Being both a Political Science and a Spanish major, I wanted to go with a program that would challenge me on both fronts. I wanted a Spanish program that was rigorous, but I also wanted to go to a culture that was as different from my own as I could think of. Cuba was just starting to open up at the end of the Obama administration, and there was something mysterious about the island. All I knew about it was Castro and the Buena Vista Social Club, but I wanted to learn more.

I always planned to travel to Europe, not caring whether I studied abroad then or vacationed there sometime in the future. As I came to find out, studying abroad is much different than vacationing. Living with a host family, attending a Spanish university, and experiencing daily life as the Spanish do is unlike the tourist experience, where you are on the outside looking in.

When I was in high school I decided that I wanted to experience what the rest of the world has to offer. In order to fulfill this desire, I knew that I would need to study abroad. I loved learning the Spanish language and knew that studying abroad was the way to go.