Category Stories: First Generation
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Unprecedented: Being the First but Not Last Generation Abroad.
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Who we are is a story that we tell ourselves. It is a sentiment I have heard reiterated by coaches, professors, and friends as a means of motivation. “You are strong if you believe yourself to be!” “You can do remarkable things if you believe that you are worthy and are capable of them!”One of…
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How to Survive & Thrive Until Study Abroad Really Begins
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My journey into study abroad was filled with many emotional highs and lows. It was like a novel; it had a beginning, middle and end. Everyone talked about the beginning and end, but where was the middle, the heart of the story? No one ever mentioned it, that time between acceptance and actually being abroad.Everyone…
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Navigating a City Proud of their European Heritage as a Student of Color: Part Two
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As discussed in part one of this series, Buenos Aires is a city whose citizens pride themselves on their European heritage, resulting a city-native identity that relies on being white. As a result, students who don’t pass as white may be quickly labeled as “other.” Students I spoke with who identify as East Asian or…
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Navigating a City Proud of their European Heritage as a Student of Color: Part One
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I walked into the convenience store on the corner of my block in Buenos Aires. As I dipped my head into the shade of the corner store, I asked the cashier if they sold orange juice. They ran out of cold ones, he’d said, “Pero hay un Chino en la esquina.” Translation: “But there’s a…
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First Generation Student Abroad
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Grit Gets You There. Becoming a first generation student scholar through IFSA was one of my biggest dreams come true. Despite the high financial demands of attending college and studying abroad, I accomplished this though persistence, grit, and hard work. I was looking forward to gaining research skills and relevant job experiences to improve my…
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Keeping Current From Thousands of Miles Away
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Writing for IFSA ‘s student blog as a First Generation Scholar has made my study abroad experience so unique and special. It has also made it a bit daunting. There are endless topics I could write about, well past 1000 words. There are also students out there just like me, first generation college kids with…
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I’m A First-Generation Student Who Studied Abroad, Now What?!
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Applying to college was hard. Planning to study abroad was even harder. And now that my time here in Sydney is nearing the end, I’m facing the biggest challenge of them all: coming home! So here are my final thoughts on how I started, how I ended, and how I’m moving forward. Rude Awakenings: chicken…
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How Does a First-Generation, Non-Traditional Student Study Abroad?
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My Story My parents did not attend college, and I was not really expected to attend either. My family also does not travel, and international travel was always a far-off fantasy for me. I never really expected for it to be possible for me to go anywhere; it was just something I daydreamed about from…
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What the Food in Buenos Aires Taught Me About My Latina Identity
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As a person of Mexican descent living in the United States, I also identify as being a Latina. To be quite honest, I didn’t even know that the term “Latino” or “Latina” existed until about the third grade when I started taking standardized tests that asked me to bubble in my ethnic identity. At the…
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APP-y Hour: Four Mobile Apps + One Card You Need When Studying Abroad in Shanghai
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After living in Shanghai for three months, I have learned that mobile apps are a huge deal in China. These apps are super convenient and have allowed me to stay within budget while enjoying all the Shanghai has to offer. It is imperative to have working smartphone, especially in a mobile consumerism-driven society like China.…
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