Wellness Wednesday: Study Abroad builds Resiliency

GrĂ¡inne Hand Assistant Director

Date

March 29, 2023

We have heard so much about how traveling and experiencing new cultures changes perspectives and broadens horizons, but these experiences also make one more socially durable and confident.  Planning a trip, navigating airports and hectic city streets, active listening among new accents and currencies, and even preparing for an exam in a foreign university system contribute to resilience construction.  At Arcadia in Ireland we find ways to take stock of these accomplishments with our students through our student engagement programming.  With every interaction with students,  we encourage them to articulate what they have learned by connecting their experience overseas with their often stated goals of “comfort zone expansion”.  Along the way we remind students that even the smallest victory is evidence of their new found resilience.  Study Abroad is not solely about degree progression, it’s about the person a student becomes after attending one of our programmes.