My Purpose for Traveling Abroad Essay

From an early age, I had the desire to give back to my community. This desire was likely instilled in me by my mother, who as a school teacher, went to great lengths to help her students achieve academically. To better do this, she created at Tupelo Middle School in Mississippi, the Mermaids and Argonauts Program, which allowed students to travel on extended school trips to locations where they were able to have hands-on experiences at zoos, science labs, colleges, museums, and more across the country. As her child, I was able to tag along on many of these trips, which fueled my desire to learn about and interact with my environment. It left me with the great hope that someday I would be able to have such experiences abroad, in order to better learn about the people and cultures with which I interact. For this reason, I hope to study abroad this summer in Pachuca, Mexico.

From my travels, I also learned that there can be more than one solution to a problem. Indeed, having a variety of perspectives makes it easier to come up with approaches to different problems. My travel experience has strengthened my interpersonal skills, as well as my integrity and determination.

“Not until we are lost do we begin to understand ourselves.” Henry David Thoreau stood behind the fact that all change is a miracle that happens in every instant. World travel has the potential to introduce an individual to the various miracles that life has to offer through aspects like culture, scenery, and language. In fact, there is a psychological concept that goes by the name of the “Big Five.” The number five refers to the five most dominant characteristics of personality: openness, extraversion, neuroticism, conscientiousness and agreeableness. Meeting new people and exposing oneself with new culture is one of is an activity that is one of the main contributors to the openness factor of personality which in turn has a domino effect on the remaining four characteristics (“5 Ways…”). That being said, by travelling the world an individual is able to become more adventurous and well rounded.

I have always wanted to travel during college to study, volunteer, or both, and the study abroad programs and scholarships pertaining to the Honors LLC will allow me to achieve these dreams. I believe traveling to new places is an unparalleled method of learning, as traveling exposes you to ideas, customs, and mannerisms that no textbook can ever teach. In today’s global society, being aware of other cultures is crucial from a personal, business, and societal standpoint.

Iowa State University prides itself on its mission to “Create, share, and apply knowledge to make Iowa and the world a better place” (Iowa State University Office of the President: Mission and Vision). This mission focuses on the success of each and every student that attends Iowa State. In order for Iowa State’s Study Abroad program to follow the foundational mission of the entire university, it had to create a mission that also focused on the students. The mission they have formed and stand today consists of: putting emphasis on developing strong international adventures. In order for students to go out to other countries to receive a quality education, the Study Abroad program must create a strong base on which they are able to form equal quality education as Iowa State provides no matter where a student goes. To promote opportunities that are inclusive and affordable for all students. To prepare students and directors for success when studying abroad. To advance standards of safety and uphold

Additionally, students can travel around the world to learn about new cultures. By traveling, students can pick up new skills and

Throwing oneself into an entirely different culture for a few weeks a year, is one of the most intellectually gratifying things I have come to experience. It exposed me to the fact that there is more to life than meets the eye. Accepting its complexity is almost as important as understanding what makes it complex. My visits to Poland have opened my one dimensional mindset, and allowed for more complicated reasoning. Traveling also forces an individual into strange situations they are unaccustomed to, and shows that not everything can be learned in a classroom. It teaches politics, economy, history, geography and less general things such as the ability to explore, grow, and make mistakes. They are left with the satisfaction of doing things they never knew they could

The world has so many different things to contribute when it comes to customs, knowledge, and ways of going about life. If people have the oppurtunity to travel they should take advantage of it. Which is why I want to participate in one of UK’s study abroad programs. Traveling the world has always been something I’ve wanted to do, and what better way to do it then through your education. UK offers so many different programs in so many different areas, I’ll be able to use this study abroad program to not only enhance myself and education, but to also enhance and educate those around me. I’ll be able to learn different customs and expand my knowledge then bring it all back to my home at

Stepping out of your comfort zone isn't always easy, especially in a foreign setting. In my life, traveling has not only been a means of seeing new places, but gathering exposure to cultures that have led to a greater understanding of different and opposing beliefs that exist throughout the world. On my recent trip to Europe, I acquired knowledge of cultures that I could not even begin to comprehend had I not experienced it first hand. Experiencing circumstances on foreign grounds taught me that the area in which we live in can truly cultivate us into who we are and what we believe.

To burgeon into a experienced and learned individual. For that, the journey to my destinations are as vital as the destinations themselves. As I prepare for college, I am exceedingly ardent by the sphere of possibilities it unlocks for me. The challenges of academic rigor, struggle to attain time management, unconventional thought processes about random thought, sometimes silly, other times reflecting, the accompanying path of self-discovery, making fresh friends from nonuniform cultural backgrounds; all of these lessons, such as what I could learn from traveling to the cities I want to travel to. Each location I voyage to will offer me something notable from roaming there. I hope to learn something original from each and every one of my college experiences. My forthcoming learning and cherishing my experiences, growing as a person and being equipped for the destination, is the fashion in which I Iong to spend the remain of my

Opportunity to travel abroad: traveling to another country enables you to get a complete picture of the culture, it also helps to enhance your interpersonal skills as well as your communication skills and it enables you to appreciate new customs. (San Diego State University, n.d.)

Travelling is important as it can remove the unintended prejudice that individuals carry out rashly. Sometimes, people unconsciously treat others differently solely based on their own beliefs. Since their judgement is based only on opinion, therefore it may be inaccurate to use when addressing the persons around them. However, exploring the world may lessen your tendency to be prejudice as you will gain detailed insights to the way others think, the way others see, and the way others live. Thus, this will allow you to not make foolhardy assumptions when being in contact with a society or community as you will be more knowledgeable to understand why they are the way they are. Removing prejudice from our lifestyle is very important to us as open-thinkers as we often make many mistakes in the treatment of other human beings. Prejudice is an undesirable trait to possess because

“In 2006 to 2007, according to the data compiled by the Institute of International Education, 582,984 students from all over the world were enrolled in American colleges and universities in a wide range of fields” (Carter, Paragraph 2, 2008). The United States has the highest number of students who are coming to study abroad than any other countries. Each year, the number of international students coming to the United States to obtain degrees is increasing by thousands, and home countries of these students are primarily India, China and Korea, all located in the whole different continent. But what are the motives of students who are crossing the sea to study? Their goal of studying abroad is to experience diversity and to adapt attitudes

First, I just want you to ask yourself a little and simple question. Why do you travel? Have you answered it? I sincerely want you to answer it before I do so, that will help you understand with more ease. The first one I thought of was to learn. Many people, in fact, love to travel to get to know a country’s culture, food, language and landmarks. This will help people be more culturally diverse, open-minded and usually more balanced people. The second reason I thought of was to have an adventure. Naturally, some people are more adventurous than others so they prefer doing something they have never done before. For instance, people who live near the ocean have the tendency to visit more mountainous places so they can have new experiences and do more radical activities. Another obvious reason is to spend some quality time with your family. Nowadays people work during most of their days and go back home already tired, meaning they have less time for their families and people they love than before. Thus, they often go for a journey together during holidays and sometimes even weekends. The final reason I have got is quite different

money to cover the expenses you plan to occur, and extra in case of an