Reflect on your study abroad experience

Announcement Date: May 5, 2020

When you set out on your SIT Study Abroad program, you were undoubtedly filled with excitement to explore your host country and energized by new possibilities and challenges that awaited you.
 
It’s only natural to feel a sense of disappointment, confusion, and even grief because of the opportunities taken away from you due to the deadly worldwide pandemic.

Reflection is at the heart of experiential education. To help you reflect on this unprecedented experience, we invite you to participate in an exercise. Scroll down for questions that may inspire you or help you express your feelings during this challenging time. You can even write your own!

If you would like your piece to be considered as a post on the SIT blog, please return your answers with a photo of yourself, preferably one from your study abroad program, to [email protected].

Please include the following information with your submission:

  • Your full name
  • Your preferred pronouns
  • Name of SIT program
  • Your home institution
  • What year are you in? (freshman, sophomore, junior, senior or graduate)

From the questions below, choose those that resonate most with you and share your thoughts, feelings and experience with the SIT community. Write about as many as you want, or think of your own prompt.

  1. What's the #1 thing you'd like your friends and family to know about your host country?
  2. How did your SIT program shift the way you see the world?
  3. Tell us one of your favorite things about your SIT program or host country.
  4. What were some of the unique sights, sounds, smells, and tastes of your host country? For example, the striking color blue painted on houses in Morocco, or the mouth-watering aroma of street vendor food in Vietnam. How did a particular sensory experience make you feel?
  5. What new food/s did you try at your homestay family's dinner table or a stall, sweet shop or restaurant?
  6. Was there something about your routine with your host family that you have carried home with you?  What parts of your experience have you integrated into your life back home?
  7. What is the one moment you know you will never forget?
  8. Although it was cut short due to the worldwide pandemic, what do you expect will be the lasting impact of your study abroad experience?
    How did it change you?
    Did it change a particular belief? How so?
    Has it made you rethink your course of study or career path? If so, how?
  9. Where were you when you found out about the corona virus and what did you think? What were you feeling when the decision was made to bring you back to the US?
  10. What's next for you?