Pre-Arrival & Solo Travel
After I graduated high school, I had the privilege of studying abroad in Belgium for a year through Rotary Youth Exchange. In my time abroad, I attended a fifth year at a culinary high school, learned to speak fluent Dutch, met many amazing people—including my host families and friends I made there—and got to travel most of Europe. There was no question in my mind that I would study abroad again. Originally, I wanted to spend my junior year of high school and a gap year abroad, but when that didn't pan out, I knew that studying abroad in college was a must.