The Education Abroad Fair was held on Feb. 9 by Julio Castro. He is the advisor of the Education Abroad program at California State University, Monterey Bay (CSUMB), which helps inform students about the many opportunities they have to explore different places and learn additional life skills.
This gives students the opportunity to get a feel for different cultures and can also be a transformative experience, both in the classroom and out of the classroom.
“When students go abroad, they have access to classrooms that are just internationally focused or internationally built,” Castro said. “You can … learn a new language and just grow as a person and become more independent. It’s just overall a great experience.”
Due to COVID-19 traveling to other countries was put on pause in order to ensure the safety of everyone, but now some countries are starting to open up again.
“CSUMB was probably one of the earliest universities to say no travel when the pandemic started, and we’ve been very cautious as well as one of the late starters, but now that countries are opening up, we’re able to start the program again,” Castro said.
While traveling to any country would be amazing, the students at CSUMB prefer some places over others.
“So here it’s Japan because we have a Japanese major, so our students [have it] built into their degree and England is a close second because of them being English speaking,” Castro said.
There’s so much the world has to offer, and this program gives you the option to go out there and explore it.
As the semester moves forward, so do the opportunities to grow as a person and learn more about different cultures, which comes with the study abroad experience.