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Education Abroad pushed CSULB students to study elsewhere

Cal State University Long Beach hosted the 28th annual study abroad fair on Tuesday to bring awareness of the different opportunities available to students.

Education Abroad Program Assistant Director Cecilia Fidora said the goal is to push Long Beach students to study abroad because it makes them more global,

“I think [being more global] means respect beyond tolerance,” Fidora said. “[It’s] a true understanding of other cultures because once you’ve been somewhere new, you’re never going to be the same. I think the real one-on-one personal experience has got to be the best.”

CSULB has 3,000 international students on campus, and less than 800 students going abroad elsewhere, Fidora said.

“It’s an initiative students have to take to find out how to do it,” Fidora said. “Any student’s first step is to come to a workshop. We have them everyday. Then you learn what they can and can’t do [and] what works for their major in the country they want.”

Twelve of the 55 different participants this fall were a part of the CSULB study abroad program.

“For students to make the best value for their money, going on our CSULB programs is possibly more affordable because it’s our tuition, meaning you would register and pay just what you would pay normally when you’re here,” Fidora said. “You’re actually registered here when you’re gone, so that’s why you pay the same price, so the same financial aid and everything else works.”

Senior environmental science major Dustin Davis studied in Wollongong, Australia for a semester and said it was amazing.

“[It’s] just the wanderlust, wanting to travel to a new place and get school credit for it,” Davis said. “It doesn’t matter necessarily where you go, but just the fact of going abroad and getting out of your comfort zone.”

Rakia Wells was the representative of CISabroad (Center of International Studies) and said the fair is more persuasive than looking on the Internet.

“You have us, the representatives, so we can chat with you about financial aid, scholarship options [and] questions that you might have that you don’t really see on the internet,” Wells said. “It’s great to have that face-to-face connection.”

Sophomore biology major Lizvet Cisneros and linguistics major Anna Yeng browsed the fair for the second year in a row.

“It makes it easier because we don’t have to look up on our own time,” Cisneros said. “And because they’re giving us the information up front, I feel like you kind of trust it more than if you just went online and looked it up. It kind of motivates us too.”

Yeng plans to study abroad in China over the summer.

“I speak Chinese, and I’m trying to see if I could teach English abroad,” Yeng said.

Cisneros said she’s thinking of traveling to Spain to do a research opportunity or work as an intern.

Students and representatives at the fair were able to ask and answer questions or learn more about a topic that peaked their interest.

“A lot of the people are really willing to speak to you even though you might not even know what to ask,” Cisneros said.

There were over 35 student volunteers who were either international students, or CSULB students who studied abroad and returned.

“Everyone’s so excited when they get back,” Davis said. “They want to share their experiences.”

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