Seeking Vocation, Not Vacation

As the holiday season starts, so do the grilling questions from my family members that I haven't seen since the last holiday get-together..."Why liberal arts? Why International Business?" and my all-time favorite, "Why Germany?!" 

Studying in Germany has been my goal since my nerd days in high school, and now that it is becoming a reality for me, I couldn't be more confident in my decision to study abroad in Karlsruhe during the spring semester. As an international business major, one would assume that I would want to study somewhere where the business world is more prominent. However, I wanted to avoid these countries for my study abroad university, because I wanted to have a different look at the business world. The way Germany handles business differs from other countries, including my own. Their business customs, ideas, and practicalities are unique, and contribute to its efficiency in the business world. I believe that living like a local and being completely integrated in the everyday culture, I will be able to observe how business is done in the country and gain a hands-on knowledge of their ideas in that sense--what an opportunity! I believe that these opportunities to learn are abundant in the small town of Karlsruhe, which is partially why I decided to study there at Karlshochschule International University.

KIU is a very interesting university in the sense that their curriculum is extremely hands-on and personal. Their ideas of how a class should be taught are very similar to mine, which is something that I greatly appreciated about the school during my application process. One of the biggest thing that helped determine which university I attended was the idea of internships. KIU not only counsels their students to find internships, they greatly encourage it. There are multiple outlets for me to learn about local internships in my field, which is something that I am really excited to take full advantage of.

I can only imagine the multitude of things I am going to learn while studying abroad in Karlsruhe. Not only am I going to have the opportunity to expand my German speaking skills, I am going to have the chance to open my mind to new things, people, and experiences. I know that my months abroad are going to be packed full of knowledge of various things within my field of study that will help with my future career (whatever that may be), but I also plan to learn much more than that...this semester abroad is going to teach me so much about myself, I just know it. It's almost inevitable. Although I can't adequately determine exactly what I will learn as a person while studying abroad, I predict that learning how to adjust to a completely different culture and speaking a language other than my own on a daily basis will teach me to step out of my comfort zone and to not be afraid to try new things in order to discover a world that I've never experienced before (please forgive the cliche...you knew it was coming).