Three and a half months of journalism in Morocco

When I first started looking at places to study abroad, I knew I wanted to go somewhere outside of Europe, and I wanted to be able to tie my experience in journalism into it. This program was the perfect fit, and I was beyond thrilled to hear the news that I would be living in Rabat in spring 2016.
This program allows you the opportunity to truly get ingrained in Moroccan culture. You live with a host family for the first two months and attend crash-course lectures that give you raw, genuine perspective of the country you're living in. Then you go out to a city of your choosing for the final five weeks of the program to work on your independent study project. Between those two experiences, I learned so much about the country, but I also learned so much about myself. This unique study abroad experience taught me that it's OK to not understand what's going on in a room where you don't speak the same language as anyone else. Through experiential learning, It stretched me to my academic limits and unveiled my strengths and weaknesses (and how to fix them) as a reporter. After coming back to the States, I've noticed that this experience has taken me out of a comfort zone I didn't even know I was living in, which helped me get a better perspective on life. Morocco definitely changed me, and I know I'll be back there some day.