By: Angela Ding, Nursing ’23 University of Queensland, Australia Angela is one of the Semester Abroad Global Correspondents writing and sharing her experience abroad during the Fall 2022 semester. Follow along with the group of correspondents on our blog and look out for their images on the @pennabroad Instagram feed. I experienced my first culture shock when I arrived at Penn as…
By: Anusha Mathur, College ’25 Anusha and a llama in Salta Argentina Social Impact in Buenos Aires, Argentina The immigrant experience is often simplified into cliches, like booking a one-way ticket and never looking back. I always wondered what it might be like to move to a new country and this past summer, I got a…
By: Zoe Lu, Wharton ’25 Zoe and friend kayaking in Halong Bay Environmental Sustainability in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam To pre-internship Zoe: Since two months seems so short, you probably won’t expect to find a second home in Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) this summer. Although it will be hard to have to be so…
By: Zoe Lu, Wharton ’25 Zoe participating in the Tower of Hanoi team relay Environmental Sustainability in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam I never expected to like the startup culture as much as I do now. As someone who enjoys predictability and structure, I wasn’t sure if the flexibility of startup work would fit me. However,…
By: Krystal Li, SEAS ’25 Krystal in the lab. Engineering Research in Singapore As part of the Engineering Research in Singapore program, I am doing research at the National University of Singapore (NUS) for 2 months. The research project I’ve been assigned to is called decentralized traffic signal control for urban mobility under professor Guillaume…
By: Brandon Lee, College ’25 Brandon and his colleagues International Development in Seoul, South Korea To be completely honest, I had no idea what to expect on my first day working in Seoul, South Korea. This was my first internship experience, and the train ride to the office felt like an eternity. Walking into the busy,…
By: David Adam Kato, College ’24 David and his co-interns visiting the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Museum. World Medical Association in Ferney-Voltaire, France As you are considering applying to the World Medical Association (WMA) GRIP placement, I am sure one of the things you are curious about is what your professional life will look like?…
By: Stella Hung, College ’24 Stella and friends at Taronga Zoo Business in Sydney, Australia If I were to choose a single word that encapsulates my summer abroad in Sydney, it would be hunger. As my time here is wrapping up and I reflect on these past two months, I can only think of the…
By: Carmen Harrison Montoya, College ’24 Carmen standing in one of the many alleyways in Palermo Soho known for its colorful street art and design Social Impact in Buenos Aires, Argentina To the Carmen I was, Before your summer experiences began, I could say many things about you with absolute certainty. I could precisely comment on…
By: Ryan Guber, SEAS ’25 Ryan on top of Mount Batur Business in Singapore While my time in Singapore was filled with extraordinary new opportunities, I also took advantage of my location as an island surrounded by many other countries throughout my GRIP placement. Consequently, with some proactive planning, I was able to stretch my…