My name is Katie and I recently studied abroad in Florence, Italy last fall through Global Fairfield! I am currently a junior pursuing a Marketing degree with a minor in Business Analytics. Studying abroad was an amazing experience for me and one of the best decisions I ever made. It was really scary moving to a foreign country for four months and not knowing anyone in my program or anyone that was studying in Florence. The unknown was absolutely terrifying but it was always a dream of mine to study abroad so I took a leap of faith. I remember being so overwhelmed when I got there but after a week or two of putting myself out there I began making friends and I started traveling all over the place.
My first big weekend trip was to Croatia and I ended up meeting one of my best friends that was on the same trip as me and stayed in the same hotel. After that weekend, my internship started up and so did my regular class schedule. I was in a fashion marketing internship which was about 12 hours a week and it was very eye opening and I felt like I gained a lot of knowledge about fashion while working as an intern. With my classes, I took four classes and they were all very fun which took me by surprise. All the classes were three hours long, once a week, and one class in particular, Health and Fitness in the Mediterranean, was great and it counted as a natural science at Fairfield University. In that class, we were doing so many hands-on fun things such as: power walking around the city, making pasta from scratch, biking around the city, wine tastings, and even rowing along the Arno River! I have never been in classes that were so exciting, interactive, and hands-on before. Since I had classes and my internship from Monday-Thursday, I was able to use the long weekend for traveling.
Traveling around Europe as a 20 year old girl really shaped me into the person that I am right now. Through my traveling “highs and lows" I learned so many things about myself that I wasn’t aware of before going abroad. I traveled all over Europe including: London, Paris, The Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland, Barcelona, Madrid, Prague, Croatia, The Amalfi Coast, Cinque Terre, Venice, Rome, and Lake Como.
Studying abroad was the adventure of a lifetime and I came out of it with so many new friends that live all over the country and so many stories to tell. I would most definitely recommend studying abroad to anyone that is looking for an adventure regardless of whether or not your friends are doing it or how nervous you are; it will be worth it!
