This summer, I will be studying abroad in Rome, Italy for six weeks with Viterbi Overseas! I don’t think I’ve ever been more excited for summer break in my life. For this blog, I’m going to talk about the program and why I decided to study abroad during the summer. Expect some blogs about my actual abroad experience in the future!
When I was a high schooler trying to choose a college, I honestly didn’t put too much thought into studying abroad. Even though I loved to travel, I didn’t really want to study abroad because didn’t want to spend an entire semester away from my friends at school. That opinion changed when I signed up for an alternative spring break.
For my alternative spring break I went with a group of students to Lima, Peru, where we worked to help elderly people. (You can read more about my alternative spring break here.) Anyways, when I came back from Peru, I realized how incredible international experiences truly are. California is only a tiny portion of what the world has to offer, and I wanted to experience so much more than that.
When I came back, I decided that I wanted to study abroad, but half of me still wanted to be able to be with my friends at school. Viterbi Overseas was the perfect solution; I’ll be bale to get the abroad experience and still be able to spend all my fall and spring semesters on campus.
Viterbi Overseas is a unique program for many reasons. In my opinion, its most interesting feature is that it is taught by USC professors! Even though it’s over the summer, Viterbi flies out its faculty with the students. This is different from most summer abroad programs which use professors from other universities. On my college transcript, it will read as though I took the classes at USC and not another university.
I can’t wait to touch down in Fiumicino airport this summer. I know that living in Europe with other Viterbi engineers my age will be an experience I’ll never forget.
