Wouldn't you like to
continue your studying abroad experience here? You might want to find ways of
keeping up with, for example, Spanish/ French/ German verbal skills or your
engagement in a issue like health/insurance and food security. We would like to
remind you that you can continue your experience in the Twin Cities. It won't
be the same as studying abroad, but that doesn't mean that it's not worth it.
Draw a tangent from your previous experience and expand it! Why not!?
Both CEC
and CDC offer many ways to connect your experience abroad with local
communities and groups. For instance, you could volunteer as a Spanish tutor
for kindergardeners. If you are worried about time management, you
could do it as paid work study through the CEC (which you can sign up for
right now--the deadline is in the mid-February) OR you could volunteer/intern
for credits through the CDC.
Now, you only need to
make up your mind and check out what they can offer. And you can find a lot
more information on their website:
You can find even more
information when you set up an appointment. During
the mean time, the International Center would like to show you the highlights of CEC & CDC!
Civic Engagement
Center
There are always on-going
opportunities near you! CEC has a nice variety of topics categorizing your
possibilities. Take some time and check out the list. Click on a topic and
a pdf file will pop up (except for the one on public policy):
Arts for Social Change
Economic Justice
(Student organizer: Eric Goldfischer – egoldfis@macalester.edu)
Immigrant and Refugees (Student
organizer: Laura Levinson – llevinso@macalester.edu)
Spanish Language (Student
organizer: Ellen Dossey – edossey@macalester.edu)
Youth and Tutoring
(Student organizer: Kaitlin Roh – kroh@macalester.edu)
College Access
(Student organizer: Asma Mohammed – amohamme@macalester.edu)
Environment and Sustainability
(Student organizer: Rayanatou Laouali – rlaouali@macalester.edu)
Hospitals
Global Justice
(Student organizer: Jungwon Lee – jlee9@macalester.edu)
Women and Gender
(Student organizer: Adrian Lein – alien@macalester.edu)
Public Policy
(Student organizer: Stephen Ark – sark@macalester.edu)
If
you want more information or want to talk to someone regarding volunteer
opportunities, contact CEC. Or check out there website listed above. They have
a lot of amazingly helpful information there. You can also sign up for a
mailing list for each topic. These info emails are sent out by student
organizers assigned for the topics. You can also talk to them; they are
supposed to be a great help!
Career Development
Center
As
much as CEC, CDC is ready to help you out as well! CDC reminds you that you
should not “undersell” your study
abroad experience. Because 70% kids at Macalester have studied abroad, this
does not mean that studying abroad is a general or generalized experience that
everyone does. Studying abroad is particular and unique for each participating
individual. CDC encourages you to list your study abroad on your resume. As
usually the case for writing a resume with “cool” descriptions, you may find it
difficult to describe your experience in a nice, professional way. In that
case, make an appointment at the CDC or do
a drop-in session (2pm – 4pm every weekday and 7pm – 9pm on Wednesdays). I
have personally gotten so much help from the CDC, it’s unbelievable. I have a
really good resume, which allowed me to get a job.
In
addition, CDC will also help you with expanding your experience to your current
and future professional life. You might want to continue working in population with
certain issues. CDC will help you browsing through and narrowing down your job
options. If you are struggling a lot figuring out how your study abroad
experience “matters” now, simulate your possible job interview in the future
and how it will help you: “Describe a difficult situation you had to face and
how you overcame it.” I’m sure you have a plenty of those in your memory. Study
abroad demonstrates your willingness to get out of your comfort zone and learn
new things—an attitude that your future boss will appreciate. If you are having
a lot of trouble translating your past experience to the current, meet with one
of the CDC advisors. They are extremely informative and helpful.
We hope that this was some
help. We just wanted to introduce to you that there are many ways to continue your experience here in the Twin Cities.
If you would like to talk about these things with IC, CEC, or CDC, don’t
hesitate to make an appointment. Thank you and we wish you all the best!
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