There’s no doubt about it – what Vanessa Chong does every day at her Dean Hall office has a huge impact on University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa students and their views of the world. Chong, a Study Abroad Center advisor who specifically assists College of Social Sciences students, can attest to the life-changing experience of studying abroad.
“Students say it’s an overall amazing experience,” said Chong. “They cite the great professors, interactive classes and hands-on learning environment, as well as becoming globally aware.”
Take Alyssa Rodello, a senior in journalism who spent spring 2021 in Seville, Spain, as a Study Abroad Center scholarship recipient. She admitted a little trepidation going to Europe during the pandemic, but decided to apply anyway because it had been a longtime dream.
“The main reason why I wanted to study abroad was because I never wanted to be limited to the knowledge of where I’m from,” said Rodello, who was born and raised in Colorado and moved to Honolulu in 2018 to attend UH Mānoa.
Armed with a year and a half of Spanish, she depended on her Study Abroad host family and new acquaintances to delve into the language and culture. “My host family only spoke Spanish, along with most of the people I encountered. This forced me to practice my Spanish and gain confidence in my new language,” said Rodello. “When I went to grab drinks and tapas with my new friends, I ordered my meals in Spanish. The communication challenges grew easier over time. A few of my host sister’s friends happened to be fluent in or eager to learn English, so I would speak to them in Spanish and they would respond in English. It was a win-win situation.”
Rodello said one of the biggest differences between her host culture and back home was how often everyone, not only young people, would go out. “The Spanish culture is more social – everyone walked everywhere and no one wanted to spend their days alone. This made me, automatically, more outgoing,” she said. “I felt like I could walk eight miles a day and all I wanted to do was be with my friends, meet new people and experience new things. Everything felt so alive in Spain. You never got bored of staring at the same thousand-year-old cathedral. I adored the architecture, the way that people dressed and how they treated each other.”
Rodello said her three-month Study Abroad summer seemed to fly by, and that it changed her in a big way. “I am completely more globally aware after studying abroad, especially after the whole world went through the pandemic, is still going through it, and will continue to deal with the repercussions of it all,” she said. “It made me realize how similar families are around the world. Study Abroad expanded my capability to consume multiple points of view, while still being able to keep a stronghold of my own views and even morals. I am beyond grateful for the experience.”
Deadline application for summer 2022 is Thursday, February 17, 2022, for Shanghai, China; Kobe, Japan; Angers, Lille, Paris, France; Berlin, Germany; Dublin, Ireland; Florence, Italy; Seville, Spain; and Mendoza, Argentina. Deadline application for a year in Japan 2022-2023 is Tuesday, March 1, 2022. See the Study Abroad Center website.
