Students on the move

Alexis Lahorra, who plans to graduate in 2018 with a BA from Concordia, is preparing for her second summer field school at the Pontifical University in Salamanca, Spain. She finished her first trip there last summer.

As a Spanish major, Lahorra believes these trips invaluable in mastering the language. “I need to get out of my comfort zone and really immerse myself somewhere I’m forced to speak Spanish and communicate with the people around me,” she says. “Salamanca is a great place to do that.”

Lahorra recalls her time spent in the conversation exchange partner program, where a native student or faculty member helps a foreigner practice his or her Spanish in return for English practice of their own. As Lahorra says, “It was really cool to have this experience and to learn more about each other’s cultures.”

Jianwei Wu

Jianwei Wu plans to graduate in November with an MBA. Last year, he spent four months at ESSEC Business School in Cergy, France, with the goal of improving his French.

“Montreal is a bilingual city, but once you’re on campus, it’s possible to only speak English,” he says. “I wanted to go to France so that I could advance my career in Canada.”

While he was there, Wu took advantage of the pass/fail setting of his classes to focus less on getting stellar marks and more on travelling around Europe. “I went to Iceland, Italy, Spain, Germany, Austria and the Czech Republic,” he says. “I even took the metro from Nice to Monaco.”

As for his French, he says it improved — a little.

Massimo Orsini

Massimo Orsini, BA (philosophy & poli. sci.) 14, took advantage of the Concordia Student Exchange Program three times over the course of his undergraduate degree years. Once he went to Sciences Po in Paris, France. Twice more he headed to the Pontifical University of Salamanca in Spain.

“It was phenomenal,” he says. “The experiences were incredibly enriching.” Indeed, the exchanges affected Orsini so much that they influenced his career choice. He’s now completing a law degree at McGill University, seeking a position at a firm that does global work.

As he puts it: “I only came to recognize and appreciate the importance of international interconnectedness when I was doing the Concordia abroad program.”

Raha Mohammad

Raha Mohammad, BA 17, who graduated in June with a BA, completed a semester abroad at Newcastle University in Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom. She was curious to see how her major, political science, was taught across the pond.

There, Mohammad found that all her classes were comprised of both lecture and discussion, while at Concordia, these types of seminars only start in the upper levels of an undergraduate degree program.

After completing a “very heavy course load” and a trip around the U.K., Mohammad found when she returned that she had a more profound understanding of British politics and European politics at large.

“It really helped me with the classes I took at Concordia once I came back,” she says. “I actually took a class called U.K. in the E.U., and I instantly ‘got’ Brexit.”

Stefanie Broos

As a communication studies student, Stefanie Broos, BA 15, wanted to do a semester in sun-drenched southern California, the hub of the TV and movie industry. Yet researching Los Angeles, she came up against an unpleasant surprise. “Everywhere in California except for San Francisco, you need a car,” she says.

That’s why Broos headed to San Francisco State University in fall 2014 instead. There, she lived in a giant house with no less than 15 roommates, the result of high prices and scarce availability.

“In the Sunset District, where I lived, there were lots of other students jammed into houses. But 16 people is definitely the most that anyone’s heard of,” she says.

While in San Francisco, Broos received the Fullbright Foundation’s Killam Fellowship, which, alongside a US$5,000 prize, provided two conferences for her to liaise with other international students as well as a bit of health insurance while she was in the States.

Broos says there’s no doubt it enriched her time away.

Qi Duo

“Before I went to study in Canada, I had never been abroad,” says Qi Duo, a Chinese student who plans to graduate with an MBA in November 2017. She recently returned from a semester abroad in Düsseldorf, Germany, at the WHU – Otto Beisheim School of Management.

Duo savoured the hands-on experience she got at the school, especially in her Strategic Brand Management course. In it, she brainstormed with managers from major companies to help solve their challenges. For instance, Duo worked with a manager from Christian Dior SE on how to maximize its e-retailing through the company’s third-party online platform.

“At Concordia, you have opportunities to participate in ongoing, real-life cases at case competitions,” Duo says. “But in Germany I had the opportunity to do it class, which was good for me, because I can be a bit shy.”

Learn more about the Concordia Student Exchange Program by attending an information session. The deadline to apply to study abroad in the 2018-19 academic year is February 1.