Cambria: Guys, we are rolling.
Max: [Noon]. We have to start rolling at [noon] every time.
Anna: On the dot.
Cambria: On the dot.
Max: It is high noon.
Cambria: Noon on a Friday.
Max: In Cambria’s basement.
Cambria: In my basement.
Max: At 3 a.m.
Cambria: In my basement, that yeah, that’s right.
Max: I have work tomorrow morning that’s 5 a.m. but I’m here recording this.
Cambria: Guys, welcome back to Can of Worms. It’s been a little bit since we’ve been back, but now I have brought you two new hosts. Would you guys like to introduce yourselves?
Anna: Sure! Hi, I’m Anna Rollins. I’m an English major here at the [University of Utah] and I’m very excited to do a lot of journalism and podcasting.
Max: I’m Max. I’m gonna keep a lot of my information close to the chest, because if you’re listening to this, you don’t know me. I don’t want to pretend like you do. Is that too cold? Is that too cold and mean?
Cambria: Well, no, honestly.
Max: Should I do a voice?
Cambria: No, you can do, you can do whatever you —
Max: [Christopher Walken voice] Hey, I’m Max!
Cambria: [Also Christopher Walken] Guys!
Max: [still Christopher Walken] Guys!
Anna: [yet another Christopher Walken] Guys, it’s me —
Cambria: Christopher Max Walken.
Max: Alright. Shout out to Christopher Walken.
Cambria: Anyway, so we’re back! We’re back for this fall semester of 2024, it’s been a little bit since we’ve had an episode. A little bit since we’ve had brand new, fresh voices. We had some guests on our last couple episodes, but now we have people who are on the pod who you will be hearing over and over and over and over again, not just me.
Max: Don’t make me regret this.
Cambria: It’s too late, you’re already hired. All right.
Max: Oh man.
Cambria: Well, guys, how was your summers? Do you guys do anything crazy?
Anna: It was good. I traveled, actually. I went to Scandinavia.
Cambria: Fun.
Anna: It was very, very, very fun. And then, yeah, I went on a few road trips. It’s great.
Cambria: Good stuff. Max?
Max: A couple things happened this summer.
Cambria: Okay.
Max: The one I’ll talk about is that I performed in a traveling Shakespeare company.
Cambria: Which is really cool —
Max: Called the Grassroots Shakespeare Company, who is a Utah-based original-practice Shakespeare Company, nonprofit. You should check out their shows, their website, that’s a little plug: grassroots-shakespeare.com.
Cambria: Yeah, maybe we should do an episode on them, actually.
Max: Maybe, maybe.
Anna: They’re really good.
Max: After we, after we record this, I’m gonna go to Fan X and perform.
Anna: Oh, fun.
Cambria: Wow, that’s delightful.
Max: Cami, What did you do this summer?
Cambria: I did some traveling this summer.
Anna: Fun, where’d you go?
Cambria: I went to Ireland.
Anna: Whoa.
Cambria: But you just went on, like, a family trip?
Anna: Yeah, yeah. We were across the way from each other.
Cambria: I went — guys this is really apropo if you looked at the title of this episode — I went abroad.
Max: You went abroad?
Anna: Whoaaaa!
Cambria: I went abroad to Ireland. I went on a Learning Abroad program to Ireland. And it was so fun. I had such a great time. Yes, Max?
Max: What is abroad?
Cambria: Abroad, meaning, I went out of country, out of country, learning abroad through the U I decided to get, get some classes and some learning in, not in the US of A.
Anna: But you did in the summer?
Cambria: I did in the summer. I did a summer program. I didn’t do like a [whole] semester, like a fall or spring semester. It was half of a summer semester that I went, so like five or six weeks, but it was really great. So I know a two — a thing or two about —
Anna: I know a two.
Cambria: I know a two. And one of those twos is learning abroad. So what do you — what do you guys know about learning abroad? Have you guys ever wanted to go? Are you interested?
Anna: Yeah, I really want to go. I’m planning — well, I haven’t planned anything, but I really want to go this summer. I think.
Cambria: Okay, do you have, like, a location in mind?
Anna: No … no.
Cambria: Not at all.
Anna: No, I just want to learn.
Cambria: Max?
Max: Not really. I hadn’t heard about what abroad was until like five seconds ago, and I’m a little … I’m slightly skeptical about it.
Cambria: Yeah.
Max: I’m gonna be perfectly honest. I’m a local skeptic and professional hater.
Cambria: Have you ever been out of country?
Max: No.
Cambria: I hadn’t before, either, until I went to Ireland.
Max: What if I don’t want to?
Cambria: Well, that’s A-okay. It’s okay. You don’t have to. I feel like people be going and people don’t. It’s you don’t have to. There’s no obligation whatsoever. I think it’s fun. Your guys’ knowledge of of learning abroad is … Max you don’t really know much.
Max: No.
Cambria: Rollins, you’ve heard of it a little bit?
Anna: Yeah, I know a little. I haven’t really looked into it that much.
Max: Well, Cami, why don’t you tell us a little bit about your experiences going abroad in Ireland. I even see you have a necklace on.
Cambria: I do.
Max: Did you get that at Ireland?
Cambria: I do. So actually, I got one of — I’m wearing currently — listener. I’m currently wearing a necklace that is just a sort of a small, just flat, little piece of metal on a necklace that has a bunch of symbols. And I did get it in Ireland, in their — one of their many, many, many tourist shops that has many symbols. It has, like a little spiral. It has, you know, the the shamrock, the harp, that are different various symbols of Ireland. I also have this little beaded necklace that says Cork, Ireland on it. Shout out to Cork [and] the south of Ireland all the way. So that’s the South that I’m from. It’s Cork, Ireland, which is the best, and I’m not biased, Cork is the best, and everywhere else is lame.
Max: So, Cami, what was your favorite part about Ireland?
Cambria: Okay, my favorite part about Ireland was the weather. It was summer in Ireland, which meant that it was like 60 degrees all the time.
Anna: Beautiful.
Cambria: Like, rainy and drizzly, and that is my favorite weather. And it was awesome! It was so great. I loved it there. There’s double decker busses that take everyone everywhere. That was so fun. Yeah, we had student housing. We all had our own rooms, which was really nice. We all had our own bathrooms, which was crazy. I was like, that’s crazy. I thought I was going to share with some strangers, but we didn’t.
Anna: What type of coursework did you take?
Cambria: I took a folklore class, like an Irish folklore class, and a Irish genealogy one-credit class, that was really silly and fun. And yeah. So I only took a couple. There was also an Irish like — you can learn the Gaelic language class that I didn’t end up taking, what my friends did. So “dia duit” is how you say hello.
Max: Are you sure you didn’t learn anything?
Cambria: I learned that one word and I can’t remember any other phrases. But dia duit is how you say hello. I don’t remember what the response is. There’s a specific kind of response that translates to —
Max: Vida …
Cambria: Livin’ La Vida Loca. But anyway, so yeah, I had a really great time in Ireland, and I was able to go because it was a half summer program. And so it was not so expensive, and I decided to go. It was, there was a point where it wasn’t gonna happen because I had so much work and I had to get these things, so many things, in at the same exact time that I almost didn’t go. And then I did go, thus this episode is happening. Okay, you guys want to learn about learning abroad? Are you interested? You have to, because it’s your job.
Max: Aw man.
Anna: Great!
Cambria: Guess what? You’re never gonna guess. There’s a Learning Abroad fair happening right now!
Max: Right now?
Anna: What?
Cambria: Right now!
Max and Anna: Right now?!
Cambria: You two, both of you, go out and start interviewing people and learn everything you can about learning abroad. Go!
[Max and Anna leave the studio in haste]
Cambria: Go! Get out of here. Open the door. It opens the other way. It’s a push. Now get out. Go, go, go, go, go, go.
[Door closes]
Cambria: They left.
[At the Learning Abroad Fair]
Interviewee 1: Usually, students can study abroad after their freshman year, so your sophomore year, your junior year or your senior year, you can go over the summer or whole semester or an academic year. And there are three options you can do. You can either study abroad, do an internship abroad or research abroad. And sometimes the programs would be the same as what you pay at the University of Utah, and also there are financial aid and different scholarships a student can use to cover their expenses.
Max: When did you guys go abroad?
Interviewee 2: This past summer.
Max: This past summer. So now that the summer is over, your abroad is over, what have you guys taken as experiences or lessons? Did you have a good time? What did you learn?
Interviewee 2: Great time. Yeah, we learned a lot of information systems. We took a full semester of classes, 13 credits over in Japan and Korea, six weeks in both countries. And I thought it was a great time. You know, we learned a lot about their culture and a lot just [about] how to live in different countries.
Interviewee 3: I’m also out of state, so I’ve been wanting to go to college out of state, which is why I came here, and then just going abroad, just to experience as much as I can, while also getting my education. Just, I don’t know, feels like I’m hitting two birds with one stone.
Interviewee 4: Well, I actually grew up internationally, and so I always love living abroad, and I love experiencing other cultures, and so I just feel more at home when I’m abroad, really.
Interviewee 5: School helps you get to that next step of, like learning new cultures and stuff. And this is just like a good excuse to be like, “Hey, let’s go spend a couple months or a month or so in another country” and just have fun and kind of learn about what that country has to offer.
[Back in the studio]
Max: Hey, boss.
Cambria: Hey! Welcome back. Oh my gosh, okay, okay, how’d it go? What did you learn? Tell me everything.
Max: What did we learn? I talked to a bunch of students who were mostly all interested in going abroad. Turns out it’s a thing that a lot of people want to do on campus. That surprised me.
Cambria: Really?
Max: Yes.
Cambria: Because you didn’t want to go abroad, or did it surprise you, like, how many people?
Max: Well, I thought, because I just found out about it, that most people wouldn’t know about it. I thought my knowledge of a subject was, like, the general knowledge.
Cambria: Yeah, the basic —
Max: Yeah, but I guess I was wrong, or maybe they’re wrong.
Cambria: Sure. That’s right. When faced with everyone who’s telling you to do one thing, understand that you’re the only one who’s right.
Max: Yeah.
Cambria: Rollins, what did you learn?
Anna: Well, I talked to a few of the booths. I talked to one of the like, main booth. And I asked them to kind of give me a rundown on what they would tell somebody who didn’t know anything about it and who wanted to do it. And they told me that there’s three ways to do learning abroad.
Cambria: Okay.
Anna: So basically, you can do it through exchange programs, which is like a buddy institution that the U has, and you go do coursework there, and it’s like a semester long, but you do coursework in the host country’s language. And then there’s faculty-led trips, which are basically the U of U faculty teaches courses abroad. And most of those programs are based on a specific field of study, like for your major, and those courseworks, that’s all in English, because it’s with the U of U faculty. And then there are affiliate programs, which I think is what Ireland was for you?
Cambria: Yes. Yes it was.
Anna: And that is like a third party learning abroad, like, provider institution, and you sign up through the U but it’s not the U’s program. And then with those, there’s a lot more like options in terms of like, length, pricing, destination [and] coursework. It’s a lot more variety. So, yeah.
Cambria: Wow.
Max: [snoring noises]
Cambria: Max. Are you snoozing about learning information, detailed information about learning abroad?
Anna: What did you learn, Max?
Cambria: What did you learn that was interesting?
Max: Woah, someone said my name, I woke up. Sorry. What happened?
Cambria: We were talking about learning abroad. What’d you learn?
Max: About learning abroad?
Cambria: Yeah! What was so snoozeworthy about Rollins? If you did, you find something more exciting?
Max: Well, I did talk to a lot of people because I’m very worried about the price.
Cambria: Yeah.
Max: With learning abroad, because those can get rather expensive. Anyway, I talked to a lot of people at the abroad fair about money, and turns out, yeah, it is expensive. But there was one guy who I came across who … he told me to tie my shoe, and I did. I looked up and he was some fellow. I said, “What’s your name?” He said, “I’m Rick Batchelor. I’m the director of the Learning Abroad Center.”
[cut to Batchelor]
Yeah, so my name is Rick Batchelor. I’m the director of Learning Abroad here at the University of Utah.
[back to studio]
Max: I was like, “Oh my gosh, can I interview you?”
Cambria: The director!
Max: Of the learning abroad, yeah. And he actually gave a whole thing about it, about how not only are there ways to circumvent the price, such as, they have a couple scholarships, I believe like five. But there are also different lengths of the abroad trips, ranging from a week to a full semester or a full calendar year. So you can shorten, I guess, your trips, so that they cost less. But regarding the scholarships, there are a few scholarships that are on the Learning Abroad website, or so I was told, and they like to posit this statistic, that 1 out of 4 students get one of the scholarships. Now they didn’t say if it was 1 out of 4 people who applied for it, or just 1 out of 4 people who learned abroad. It didn’t specify that. They didn’t have the answer to that question.
Cambria: I would have to assume that it would be 1 out of 4 people who apply.
Max: I would imagine, so you have a slightly less chance of getting it than maybe the website would imply.
Cambria: Sure, but there are a lot.
Max: It’s like five scholarships where they have a lot of each scholarship. So if you do the work to apply, then you’ll probably get one. Cami, did you get a scholarship?
Cambria: I got a couple scholarships. They weren’t huge, but I did get a few of the ones they have you sign up for in the Learning Abroad, the U portal. They say, “Hey, sign up for this stuff.” And you go through and you do this questionnaire, and you write a couple essays. Some of them are optional, so you don’t have to write all of them. You just write, like the basic stuff, you send it in and they will get back to you and give you some amount of money. So that’s pretty cool.
Max: Yeah, no, they have a lot of if you go to Learning Abroad website, it’s like one of the big options they have is the scholarship search.
Anna: And that Learning Abroad website is learningabroad.utah.edu.
Max: That is correct. And they have about $400,000 in scholarships that they can distribute to students. So, I guess —
Cambria: So, be applying to scholarships.
Max: Be applying for, yes, I guess if you want to do learning abroad, which I’m still not sure about.
Cambria: Okay, okay, well, you said there’s different kinds of lengths of different abroad, semesters or yearlong. So what kind of like different programs are there?
Anna: Um, I know a bit about that.
Cambria: Okay, okay.
Anna: There’s a few different programs. There’s basically programs across the board, so there’s options for basically every single major. And when doing that, when doing learning abroads that are specific to your major, it’s really good way to do really cool programs and some really cool electives for your major —
Cambria: To get specific credits for what you need towards your degree?
Anna: Yes, exactly, and that’s what a lot of the learning abroads are. And then there’s also the Asia campus —
Cambria: Oh yeah! The Asia campus!
Anna: Which is a really good opportunity. Yeah!
Cambria: You know, the other campus that the University of Utah has!
Max: Asia is a big place. Where in Asia is this?
Anna: It’s in South Korea.
Max: Okay.
Anna: So it’s in northern South Korea. I believe.
Max: Not North Korea —
Anna: Not North Korea, exactly.
Max: So it’s close to North Korea?
Anna: I think so. Yes, I don’t know the exact … it’s in the business city. I forgot the name of it.
Max: Incheon.
Anna: Yes, that one.
Max: I think, yeah. I just got that in the vision.
Cambria: What is it called?
Max: Incheon.
Anna: Yeah. And so basically, there’s four ways —
Max: If I pronounce that wrong, don’t email me.
Anna: So, basically, there’s four ways you can go to the Asia campus from the Salt Lake campus. So you can do like a freshman program, where your fall semester, you take a class with the people that are preparing to go to the Asia campus, and then your spring semester is when you go. And then you can go with your major. There’s a handful of majors that have specific programs with the Asia campus, and you can take those programs in those major-specific classes. If you’re not in one of those majors, you can take just a ton of elective classes at the campus. And then there’s also a lot of opportunities for honors students there. And then with the length of the trips, any of the trips can vary from one week to an entire semester, or even more than that. There’s also options to go over a school break, so like spring break or fall break, which is pretty cool.
Cambria: Well, cool. So there’s so much that you — there’s so many angles that you can go for if you choose to go learning abroad.
Max: There’s just too many angles. Listen, Cami, I get it. You had your “Eat, Pray, Love” tour in Ireland. Really enjoyed that, changed your life. But this just seems like so much, and I can’t keep track of all this by myself, to even get a handle — even if I want to do it, like what I would want to do.
Cambria: You know, something that might help you is that you can always talk to a learning abroad advisor.
Max: What?
Cambria: A learning abroad advisor!
Max: Who’s that?
Cambria: They are advisors, whose specific job is to help people who are interested and students who are interested in going to learn abroad.
Max: How much is it?
Cambria: To meet with an advisor or to go learning abroad?
Max: To meet with an advisor? I’ve already talked about learning abroad.
Cambria: It costs no money to meet with an advisor. You just go to the website, the U of U website, go to the advisors, go to Learning Abroad advisors, and you just schedule an appointment and they’ll talk to you about it all for free.
[typing noises]
Max: I checked the website. This is right. What the heck?
Cambria: Yeah! Why don’t you go meet with an advisor?
Max: Wait, okay, I scheduled an appointment for five minutes from now. I gotta go.
Cambria: Okay, go, go!
Anna: Go, Max.
[sounds of Max exiting the studio]
Cambria: It’s still a push.
[door closes]
Cambria: They’re gone.
Anna: They’re gone.
[in the meeting with the advisor]
Advisor: So you want to go abroad?
Max: I do, yeah.
Advisor: Okay. Do you have any thoughts on, where, when, any — what’s your [major]?
Max: I’m in the film department.
Advisor: Okay.
Max: And a lot of people I know went to the Italy program this last past summer, and it seems like a wonderful program. I just feel there there are limited options for film through learning abroad. I just want to see if there is any more wiggle room through the program, or if it really was kind of that, as far as film programs go.
Advisor: If we’re looking for just anything film-related — so this is our website — so searching for programs, you go to this search and apply button, and then you would go to … well, you can search here. It’s not really like the whole best, but if you go to this Advanced Search button, you can filter to your major, so we can find “film.” So this is the one you were talking about before that a lot of people have done. There are more. So there’s a program in France. This is a relatively new program. I think it’s runs in the spring. Yeah. So application deadline is Nov. 1. But this is a really cool program that we offer, has some opportunities to interact with the Cannes Film Festival. So that is a really good program that comes to mind. So we can look more into this. Are you looking to go for like, a summer semester? Any thoughts on that? Open? Anything?
Max: I was, I mean, I’m open. I was thinking, summer.
Advisor: Okay.
Max: I guess if it’s spring semester, would this be like a fall semester course? Okay.
Advisor: Yeah, so the courses that are offered, depending on how far in your film degree you are, these are the courses that are offered. They’re like direct Utah courses like those are the ones that they account for here. So if you’ve already taken them, like you could take them again. I guess if you really wanted to go on this program. Otherwise, that is all that’s offered for this specific program. What year are you?
Max: I’m a third year.
Advisor: Okay, have you taken those?
Max: I haven’t taken any of these. None of these are production. I haven’t taken any of these. None of these are … what’s the word, mandatory? I have been looking at the sound for film and digital media classes. So that would be interesting.
Advisor: So it’s a full semester program, so you would — I think you can take all of them, but regardless, you’re at a campus in … this is what a general, faculty-led program looks like. This isn’t faculty-led specifically. It’s like a cohort program. So it’s a little bit different, but all the information is going to be on this page, which is different than some of the other types of programs we offer. So you can see, going between the tabs here has different information. So if you want program costs, you can see a pretty general breakdown of what it would cost to do this program for the full semester and anything like that. And then you can contact our affiliate coordinator if you want to know more about this program, and set up a meeting with her. She can answer any more specific questions you have about it, that’s this program.
Max: Perfect, I think that covers everything I need. Thank you so much.
Advisor: Yeah, of course.
[back to the studio]
Cambria: Hey!
Anna: Oh my goodness!
Max: Hey guys.
Cambria: Hey Max, welcome back. How did it go?
Anna: How was your interview?
Cambria: How was your advisor appointment?
Max: It was good. A kind lady gave me a rundown of all the different — I recorded it, so maybe we could include it within the podcast, my adventure.
Cambria: Of course!
Max: So I don’t have to explain it too much.
Cambria: But do you do you feel better about all the information that was laid out? Do you feel like you have a more clear idea of what learning abroad is about?
Max: Cami. I hate to say it, not only do I have a better understanding of the Learning Abroad program, but after that meeting, I kind of want to go, go to another place and do some studying.
Cambria: All right!
Anna: Hey!
Cambria: That’s awesome! Okay, we did it.
Max: What?
Cambria: We made Max want to go to learning abroad.
Anna: We did it! Thank goodness.
Max: That is true.
Cambria: So where would you want to go? What are your top three places that you would want to go?
Max: Well, there’s, I guess … So lore reveal, I am a film major. I guess I didn’t keep that close to my chest for long.
Cambria: For a whole episode.
Max: There isn’t a lot of programs. One is to go to Cannes for the spring semester while the Cannes Film Festival is happening, which is one of the biggest film festivals in the world, and it would be operating with that. I’m probably not going to do that, just because I got other things to do for the spring semester here. But the other one which I am interested in is a summer program in Italy.
Cambria: Oh!
Max: A six week program in Italy where you get to make movies and be in Italy.
Anna: Isn’t Cannes in Italy?
Max: Cannes —
Anna: Is in France.
Max: Cannes — not only is in France, but Cannes features a silent “s” at the end that follows a vowel.
Anna: Oh, true, true. Got it, okay.
Cambria: I didn’t know that.
Max: Well, congrats. Yes, Cannes is in France and Italy is in …
Cambria: … Italy.
Anna: Where is Italy again?
Max: Europe.
Cambria: Sort of Europe area.
Max: Europe.
Anna: Generally.
Cambria: The cool thing about doing Europe abroad is that it’s really easy to go to all the different places that are all squished over there. Guys, this has been great. But would you guys be interested in some advice from a seasoned one time, half summer semester, learning abroad-goer?
Max: I just talked to an “advice-er,” so I kind of got a lot of that, but I’d love to hear some more advice from my boss.
Anna: From personal experience.
Cambria: So, often, what I hear when people say advice is that they just want you to go. And my advice is that, but if you make it to the place that you are at. So [for] me, Ireland, I can’t emphasize enough how much I was in Cork, it was great. Yes, go if you’re gonna go. If not, that’s great too. But if you’re in the spot, don’t wait for other people to make a plan if you want to do something. We had a few people on my trip who were waiting for for other people to say, “Hey, come along.” But everyone was already out doing their thing. And so if you’re in someplace cool and you want to explore and you want to do stuff, go do it. No one’s stopping you. Obviously, be safe. Be smart, but go have fun and go explore and go do this. This, this really cool thing. And you know, those somewhere outside of the U.S., which was the first for me. I’m probably going to do it again, because it was really cool, and it’s great to see the world and other people who don’t live in the U.S.
Max: That’s so real. There is a lot of world out there. And to go … the real thing you just gotta do is, say it with me …
All: Go!!!
[Go Montage]
Interviewee 1: Go do it. It’s gonna change your life. It’s gonna be an opportunity for you to grow and be more independent and learn about a different way of living, a different culture.
Interviewee 6: You should do it!
Max: What, sorry, what?
Interviewee 6: You should do it!
Interviewee 7: I would say, send it.
[outro]
Cambria: Guys! This has been another episode of Can of Worms, all about learning abroad. Thank you for tuning in, listeners. Thank you to our two new hosts, Anna and Max. We’re so glad you’re here to join us, and we’ll see you next time, on Can of Worms.
Producer- Cambria Thorley [email protected]
Host- Max Rhineer [email protected]
Host- Anna Rollins [email protected]
