This summer, I studied abroad for two weeks at Ecole Centrale Nantes in Nantes, France. For this program, we stayed with host families that live close to the school which was a great way to experience the culture! We had dinner with them most nights, and ate out with our teachers and other students the other nights. We had one free weekend to do anything we wanted. Nantes was a small city that had a lot of great food and fun things to see. The group was on the smaller side, with only 11 students. This was great because we had a lot of one-on-one direction from the french professors in our engineering design class. 
One of the best things about Penn State is all of the study abroad programs that are offered!! Planning a study abroad can seem overwhelming at first, but with a little bit of research and guidance, it can be quite straight forward. Start by visiting the global penn state website to create a list of steps for planning. If you think you might want to do an engineering study abroad program, then visit the engineering study abroad website at global.engr.psu.edu A great resource is Study Abroad 101, a presentation and online module that provides an overview of studying abroad through PSU. A great next step is to meet with both a peer and academic adviser. A peer adviser can offer great advice and insight while the academic adviser can help you determine what programs will fit with your academic plans. Global Engineering Fellows have office hours during the week on the 3rd floor of Kunkle Lounge in Hammond building where you can drop in to get some advice or ask any questions you might have about studying abroad in every step of the process. Each of the Global Engineering Fellows has studied abroad at least once and they are trained to help others find their study abroad program. There are a few global engineering fellows on the WEPO Leadership team so you will see some familiar faces there!
There are many ways to start researching different programs. I first recommend looking into which universities and programs have courses for your specific major. You can do this using the global engineering penn state site under student resources-find your program. Here you can choose a specific country that you’re interested in or browse through the selections under your major. Penn State has three different categories of study abroad programs:
- The first are semester long programs where you would be enrolled in a foreign university for a semester. Most you can choose either Spring or Fall, but some are restricted to only one of those.
- The next is summer programs. I highly recommend summer programs for the summer after your freshman year. It is a great way to spend your first summer of college before you have internships that may take priority. These can be any length of your summer from 1 week to the whole 3 months of summer!
- The third is embedded programs. Most embedded programs require you to take a course at Penn State and as a part of the course you will travel to another country for project implementation or further exploration beyond the classroom. Many of these embedded programs are faculty-led which means your professor or faculty member will be leading the trip. Some embedded programs may be during a break like during fall or spring break or they could be between semesters like in the winter or the beginning of summer.
Once you decide on a study abroad program, you can begin financial planning. A great way to do this is by visiting the study abroad scholarships page. Here, you can find scholarships through Penn State and external ones as well. There are some specifically for engineers or for specific countries as well! They also offer tips for success to help you plan.
Penn State offers many great programs that fit into everyone’s schedule differently. It is important to plan with an adviser to ensure that studying abroad will not defer your graduation date if you want to graduate on time (it is possible, even for us engineers!).
A great resource that Penn State offers is a pre-departure module through canvas that teaches you all about safety traveling abroad and issues such as culture shock. It can be very simple to fit a study abroad program into your studies, as long as you start thinking about it early and plan ahead. Feel free to ask me any questions about my trip or how I planned my adventure in France!
Cynthia Letting
Team M Mentor
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