For all students, summer is a time to take a break from school work. However, many college students still have to work over the summer. Some Elizabethtown College students spent their summer working abroad.
One of these students was senior Japanese major and international studies minor Quinten Yonkers. Yonkers spent the summer interning at the Commercial Sector of the U.S. Consulate General of Osaka-Kobe located in Japan. This organization helps provide services to Americans living in Japan.
Yonkers studied abroad in Japan during the 2017-18 academic year and ended up hearing about this internship through the school he attended. He was originally planning on participating in another internship which involved teaching English to middle school students, but when he heard about the offer abroad, he could not say no.
“It seemed like an extremely rare and once-in-a-lifetime experience to do important work and meet important people,” Yonkers said. “Also, the experience gained would be much more helpful to my future career goals than simply teaching experience.”
During his time in Japan, Yonkers said he did everything from working with classified information to traveling around the area giving speeches to students and teachers with the Consulate General.
Yonkers said the internship was helpful in giving him real world experience and opening his mind to different career paths.
While internships are a good experience to have, being abroad can also influence one’s experience.
It can be challenging to adjust to not only the company but being in a foreign country, as well.
“One of the more difficult but very interesting things to me was the fact that conducting business in Japan was completely different from conducting business in the U.S., from the type of language I was expected to use with my coworkers to the way I was expected to hand in projects,” Yonkers said.
Being abroad can also provide a new perspective on how other countries operate differently than the U.S.
“Being abroad was the most amazing thing I’ve done. Living for a year with people who are completely different from me was very eye-opening to see how the world is outside of the U.S.,” Yonkers said.
However, internships are not the only type of work students can do abroad. Graduate occupational therapy major Jessica Schultz participated in a field placement in Ibarra, Ecuador over the summer.
Schultz said she initially wanted to go to Nicaragua, but due to threatening activity occurring there, she was unable to go. Instead, the fieldwork coordinator found her this program.
“I wanted to practice my Spanish more, and I love to travel!” Schultz said.
During her time in Equador, Schultz said that she evaluated interviews with the parents of new patients and started a new hygiene program with the elderly, indigenous population.
Like Yonkers, Schultz also found the differences in culture to be something to adjust to.
“The whole experience was in a different language which was different, and there are different rules and regulations for OT practice in Ecuador,” Schultz said.
However, Schultz also enjoyed her experience.
“I met a lot of OT students from other areas of the country and had a lot of fun weekend adventures,” Schultz said. “I traveled in Peru a few summers ago to work on my Spanish, so Ecuador was very similar. I loved being back in South America again.”
Another student, junior Rebecca Voler, participated in a service learning trip in Cartago, Costa Rica.
While all these students’ experiences were different, they were all aided by Etown. The College helped find these opportunities through study abroad experiences, field work and service trips. The experiences made abroad will help students in their careers going into the future.
Students interested in international work or study opportunities should contact Etown’s study abroad adviser, Megan Bell at bellm@etown.edu.
