Ending my Undergraduate Degree Abroad -- you can do it too!

During my junior year at UCSD, I had already come to terms with the idea that I would not get the chance to study abroad. Even though studying abroad was on my “Things to do in College” checklist when I was accepted into my 2-year commitment to the honors program for my major, I decided to prioritize that opportunity. Because I would be committing to this program for 2 years, I had already made up my mind. However, I worked with my college and major advisors to ensure that I could end my undergraduate degree while abroad during my global seminar. So I did! 

As I reflect on my time in Florence, I truly think this experience was one of the highlights of my undergraduate study at UCSD. In my mind, I thought I had to choose one opportunity over the other, but since my junior year, I was gladly able to complete both the honors program and this global seminar, and even participate an additional research program on campus. I learned that it is possible to gain opportunities, as long as I seek them and ask. Not only am I glad to have participated in the Florence Psychopharmacology Global Seminar because I was able to experience studying abroad, but because the courses I took were actually very useful in my career. Currently, I work as a research assistant in a psychiatry lab which focuses on the HIV+ community. The knowledge I gained through the psychopharmacology course I took in Florence allowed me to understand how drugs interact with behavior, and that has been very useful in understanding our participants and the research we conduct. 

Overall, it is definitely possible to fit a study abroad experience into your undergraduate career. In my circumstance, a global seminar was the perfect fit, but I would defiantly recommend seeking resources like your college and major academic advisors in addition to the support from the studying abroad office in order to plan and ease your worries regarding fitting studying abroad into your schedule.