See stories from GVSU Study Abroad Scholarship Recipients before, during & after their adventures abroad.
Studying in India was a privilege that will continue to unfold my whole life. Beautiful, complex and always an adventure, India provided me a wide space to explore academic interests while introducing me to questions of international importance that will guide my future studies.
I'll never forget my walks through the streets of Varanasi. I would walk home from class past hundreds of people all going about their normal lives, and I would take time to marvel at the liveliness of the city. There were shopkeepers advertising their products, monkeys jumping about, cows hanging around the temples, and then the children that would recognize that American who walked past every day. I loved forming habits and routines in a foreign city and feeling as though I knew my way around. I think it is increasingly more important to grow your circle of empathy-- by this I mean that because we are such an interconnected world and it's only getting more so, it is so important to develop real notions of people from "not your country." Now that I've studied abroad, I care about a family (my host family) on the other side of the world like my own family, and I will never not care when I hear news of India; because it affects real people that I have real care for. I think this is how we truly grow: experiential learning.
View More Photo Gallery
