Standing confidently aside a Learning Abroad information booth outside the Union building, 21-year-old sophomore Michael Owens shared his feelings about the program.
“I feel experiencing higher education in other cultures is important to my personal growth,” he said while browsing a pamphlet about a program in Rome. “And I’m willing to undertake a crippling amount of debt in order to do so.”
Aware that the classes available abroad were barely relevant to his major and would in fact delay his graduation, Michael stressed that there is so much more to college than just graduating. “This is the only time of life when I can get out there and spend money I don’t have for experiences that will stay with me for years to come, and debt that will stay with me even longer. Every month when I’m forced to scrounge together enough money to make minimal interest payments on my student debt, I’ll look back on my time abroad with fondness.”
At press time Michael was overheard asking if the two-week study abroad in Rome included a stopover in Paris.