3 Valuable Lessons I Learned From Studying Abroad

I studied abroad in Antwerp, Belgium for 3 months during the fall of 2023, for the first semester of my junior year. I've been interested in studying abroad ever since my freshman year in high school, when I travelled in Europe with my family during summer vacation. My ability to get out of my comfort zone has definitely developed over the years, but the most drastic change I've realized in myself has been after coming back from my semester abroad. Over 3 months, I travelled to 10 different countries: Belgium, the Netherlands, Italy, Germany, France, Ireland, England, Wales, the Czech Republic, and Luxemburg.

The College of Business at JMU offers a very unique program that allowed my cohort of 36 students to study Marketing, Management, Finance, Operations, and European Business classes at the University of Antwerp. Within these classes, we worked on a Marketing Strategy Simulation Game where we had the opportunity to collaborate with Belgian students, which gave us unique insight into the different kinds of approaches that European students take. Outside of school, we stayed at the Montpelier House, an apartment complex rented out by JMU each year. We spent a lot of time together, planning short and long weekend trips with friends made in our cohort, and went on two 10-day long excursions as a cohort to the UK and several countries in Europe.

When I first arrived in Antwerp, I was so excited to meet everyone and explore a new city - my home for the next few months! To my surprise, the homesickness hit me very fast. Living somewhere so far away, for three entire months may not seem like such a big deal to out of state students, or those who have travelled for long periods of time. However, I certainly hadn't been away from my family for this long, especially in such an unfamiliar place. Meeting 35 new people, and spending 24/7 with them all at once was a lot - I'm used to building up relationships over time, and watching others in my cohort click so instantly made me nervous. Did I not fit in? Was coming here a mistake? Luckily, after the first long weekend trip, I found my group of friends and got to know everyone better. This made all the difference in my experience, especially with how much time we were spending together as a cohort on various field trips and excursions.

1. Stepping Out of Your Comfort Zone Leads to Personal Growth

   
   

The biggest source of apprehension I had about studying abroad was how long it took me to adjust to college itself. However, as my first semester of freshman year went on and I made attempts to step out of my comfort zone, I realized how much I had grown and matured by my sophomore year. Living in a different country opens up an entire new set of unfamiliar situations such as navigating transportation, trying to communicate with a language barrier, and figuring out cultural norms. As the semester went on, I was able to successfully tackle these challenges, even with trial-and-error, and I felt more confident in myself because of it.

2. Learning from Different Academic Approaches Can Broaden Your Perspectives

Although every university approaches academics in a different way, I felt like the University of Antwerp had a very unique structure of teaching. The syllabus was very different from any I've ever experienced before - we had one midterm and one final exam per class, and our entire grade was determined from these two scores. At first, hearing how this worked made me nervous because I am usually not one to test well, but I'll put in as much effort as possible on homework assignments and projects in anticipation of losing points from exams because of time constraints. Because of this structure, I really honed in on taking good notes during class and forcing myself to stay tuned in for the entirety of hour 3-hour-long classes. This was way more class time at once than I was used to at JMU, but I learned how to adapt in new ways.

For our semester-long project, an online Marketing Strategy Simulation, one of my teammates was a Belgian student who had taken marketing classes before. It was very interesting to hear her taken on the business decisions we had to make each quarter. The way she analyzed the results from previous quarters changed my own approach, and helped me understand the business situation better for the remainder of the simulation.

3. Learning a New Language, Even Partially, Makes a Big Difference

My middle school offered German as a language elective in 8th grade, and I had a very solid foundation of the class because I had such an amazing teacher. I decided to take four more years of German in high school, my last class being AP German, allowing me to graduate with a Seal of Biliteracy on my diploma. I always hear people talk about how easy it is to lose touch with a language after not practicing it consistently, and I did not want that to happen to me after all the effort I had put in. However, I knew it would be difficult because I didn't have anyone to speak in German with. I made it a goal of mine to keep practicing it using Duolingo, and even set certain features of my phone and GPS to German to keep it around.

Fast-forward to my semester abroad, I wasn't based in a German-speaking country, but I made plenty of visits to various cities in Germany - including Munich, Cologne, Hannover, Berlin, Leipzig, Nuremburg, Stuttgart, and Heidelberg. My first trip to Germany was over a short weekend to Munich's Oktoberfest. This was such a surreal experience for me, as I had spent so many classes in high school talking about the history of Oktoberfest and it being such an integral part of German culture. Since Oktoberfest was very a social setting, I worked up the confidence to speak with some locals and practice my German. I was quite rusty, but I felt so good about being able to understand and speak some German, even if it was just a few sentences. t felt incredibly rewarding to bridge the gap between what I had learned in the classroom and how it came to life in real-world interactions. That weekend not only gave me a deeper appreciation for the cultural significance of Oktoberfest, but it also boosted my confidence in using a language I had been hesitant to speak.

This experience taught me that stepping out of my comfort zone, whether through language or culture, can lead to moments of growth and connection that you can’t replicate in a classroom. It reinforced the idea that the best way to truly understand a culture is to immerse yourself in it—and doing so opens up opportunities to learn, adapt, and grow in ways you never expected.