Julia Scott Lenz from Simon Fraser University

STORIES FROM ABROAD SCHOLARSHIP WINNER ANNOUNCED!

Posted by BCSAadmin on 10/20/2017

We are pleased to announce the winner of the Fall 2017 Stories from Abroad: British Columbia Study Abroad Scholarship! Congratulations to Julia Scott Lenz from Simon Fraser University.

Born in Ontario and raised on Vancouver Island, Julia set out for Simon Fraser University to study Communication and International Relations. Here, she became invested in the campus life, working several positions at the university. In her spare time she loves hiking and exploring the local terrain. This January, she’s leaving SFU to focus her studies on geosciences and sociology at the Utrecht University in the Netherlands. Abroad, she is extremely excited to exercise her passions, such as meeting new people and cycling culture across much of Europe, before returning home to pursue sustainable transportatio...

Tags: Stories from Abroad Scholarship 2017 Winner Study Abroad financial aid Simon Fraser University
Category: News Article
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Janna Wale

Fully Adjusted

Posted by BCSAadmin on 10/17/2017

By Janna Wale, Thompson Rivers University, winner of the 2017 Stories from Abroad Scholarship and a member of the BC Study Abroad Writer in Residence Team.

You might be abroad right now feeling like you have just made the biggest mistake of your life. Why did you ever think exchange was a good idea? You clearly did not understand how hard this experience was going to be.

If you are feeling this way and are miles away from everything you love and know, I can promise you, you are not alone in feeling this way. Society today has become very fearful of the uncomfortable and the unknown.

In particular, North American society has set up residence within the familiar and the secure. To go anywhere the least bit different from the culture most of us have lived in our...

Tags: 2017 Stories from Abroad Scholarship Stories from Abroad Winner Study Abroad exchange Thompson Rivers University TRU Travel Writer in Residence
Category: Writers In Residence
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The BC crew, arrived in Beijing, China

Day 1: Flying High

Posted by BCSAadmin on 10/16/2017

By: Lucy Dabbs, Georges P. Vanier Secondary School, participant of the 2017 Beijing International Education Exchange (BIEE) Summer Camp.

In 10 hours and 2 minutes we will arrive in Beijing at 3:16 PM, 15 hours in the future. At least that's what the flight details scrolling across the bottom of the touch screen says, as I experiment with the different buttons of this fancy Air China TV. At a current ground speed of 690 km/h, climbing an altitude of 7212m with an outside air temperature of -25 degrees Celsius; that translates to about five airplane movies, a bag of Doritos, and 2 helpings of those little airplane meals served in plastic trays, until we finally stand on solid ground again.

...

Tags: Georges P. Vanier Secondary School Study Abroad BIEE Summer Camp exchange International Student education exchange Beijing BC students
Category: Student Blog
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Alice Wang, Galerie Lafayette

On encountering racial tensions when traveling abroad

Posted by BCSAadmin on 10/10/2017

By Alice Wang, Kwantlen Polytechnic University, winner of the 2017 Stories from Abroad Scholarship and member of the BC Study Abroad Writer in Residence Team

My Chinese heritage became very salient to me during my study-abroad. At every city I went, I had someone, often a man, shout out greetings to me in Mandarin on the street. Why they would even think that to be an appropriate behavior is beyond me. And yet these borderline discriminatory remarks enticed me to reflect on what it felt like to wear my ethnicity so visibly around me.

Born and raised in China, my family immigrated to Canada sixteen years ago. Since then, I have acquired Canadian citizenship and accustomed myself with the label “Chinese-Canadian.” I retained the first qualifier—“Chinese”—even though I...

Tags: Study Aboard Kwantlen Polytechnic University Writer in Residence Stories from Abroad Galerie Lafayette Paris France
Category: Writers In Residence
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