Studying with IES Abroad

I had wanted to study abroad since my freshman year of college, but upon visiting the study abroad office on my campus, I became overwhelmed and did not go back until the first semester of my junior year. I had the option of graduating a semester early, but instead of taking that option, I decided to take that semester to study abroad. In order for it to be "worth it,"* I decided I needed a program that offered an internship. As an English major studying creative writing, it was hard to find a program that fit my requirements, but in the end, I found IES. Not only did IES offer a program specifically for writers, the program was in Dublin, one of UNESCO's cities of literature, and it offered an internship dealing with written works, which is what I wanted to do. The internship I ended up getting was working as a literary assistant for a theatre production company. I was astounded by IES' ability to obtain an internship that was both intriguing and relevant to what I wanted to do after college. In addition to the internship, we were also placed in high-quality apartments that came furnished with almost everything we could need. The staff at our centre was incredibly friendly and helpful, and by the time we left Dublin, they had become friends. IES also created a perfect balance between school work and free time. We didn't have Friday classes, and we were given a midterm break, but the classes were still engaging, and the teachers held high expectations for us so that it was impossible to leave Dublin without knowing quite a lot more about Irish history and culture. Apart from IES, Dublin was the perfect size. It was possible to walk almost anywhere within the city, and a day trip to the a seaside town was always only a short train ride away. Overall, it was hard to leave both the city and the people, but I will always take Dublin with me.

*I know now that it would have been impossible for my experience to not be worth it.