UCLA Study Abroad | International Education Office | Asia (Virtual)

By Julia Andborn

Hi everyone! My name is Julia Andborn and I am a rising senior. My major is Global Studies and my minor is Global Health. I am also both an international student from Sweden and a transfer student. I am one of the ambassadors for the travel study programs this summer! I attended the IAS-Asia Travel Study. The program lasted for 4 weeks and contained 2 classes; a Business Leadership course and a Business Communications class. Robert (Bob) McCann was our professor and really taught and inspired us with his knowledge through his lectures. There were 14 students in this online travel study so we really got to know each other which made the entire experience so much fun. We “traveled” to South Korea, Japan, Vietnam, and Thailand. In addition to our lectures, the company Worldstrides also prepared fun, engaging, and interesting activities in the different countries throughout the week. I will explain the different activities in more depth in future blog posts, but some of them were tours, tea ceremonies, taekwondo, and cooking lessons.

We started the week by having a 3-hour lecture where we introduced each other, went over the logistics, and started our journey in South Korea. Later that same day we did a virtual escape room to further get to know each other. This was so much fun and helped us to learn more about each other. Even though everything obviously was online due to Covid-19, Professor McCann and the wonderful people at Worldstrides really made the entire experience awesome. It almost felt as if we were together, even though everyone attended from the comfort of their own homes.

I hope these blog posts inspire some people to attend future travel studies as it was one of the best experiences I have had. It was really great to do it online, but I am sure it will be even better when it’s conducted in-person in the future. I hope everyone has had an amazing summer just like I have and I look forward to sharing my experiences and new found love for these countries. See you!