Jessica: Studying abroad

Have you ever wondered what it’s like to study in a different country for a few weeks, or even a semester? Our students tell you a bit about their overseas experiences.

Q. Tell us a bit about your study abroad experiences.
A. I undertook three international summer schools during my degree, including:

• Warwick International Summer school in 2013 (England)- ‘Global Business Integrative Project’
• Monash University 2013 (Cinque Terre, Italy)- ‘Cultural landscape, environment and sustainability in Italy.
• Warwick Economics Summer school in 2014 (England)- ‘International Development’

Q. Why did you choose to study overseas?
A. I chose to undertake these units as I wanted to gain international exposure and better understand business from an international point of view. These summer schools all related toward my degree and I believe helped me to better understand working within a culturally diverse group. The experiences I gained on these trips were some of my favourite memories from my time at Monash.

Q. Can you share one interesting memory or funny anecdote from your time abroad?
A. A funny memory for me is getting extremely confused with three other Monash students at a train station in Italy whilst trying to navigate us to the Cinque Terre region. Battling jetlag and without any fluent Italian language skills amongst us we got on and off trains for around 2 hours, later finding we were only around half an hour away from our final destination.

Q. How do you think this experience improves your career outcomes or future goals?
A. These experiences have been invaluable for me as it means I have gained international experience and have a better understanding of international business. With my career objective to work for a global organisation that involves operations and decisions making that is internationally dispersed, it is crucial that I am able to show that I can work within diverse teams. Each one of these experiences gave me unique capabilities that can really help to differentiate you from other candidates upon graduation.