Mamas On The Move: Traveling abroad with your little one
MBA Mama Guest Blog // written by: Jennifer Sepulveda, Class of 2017 at Columbia Business School.
Growing up, experiential learning shapes our view on the world. It is important for me as a parent to ensure that I am exposing my daughter to an environment that fosters her development intellectually, socially and emotionally. It is through exposing her to diverse experiences that enables her to develop her level of thinking, think outside the box and ability to interact with others especially those from cultures different from hers. That is one of the reasons that when in the capacity to do so I bring her along with me when traveling abroad. We are able to be like travel buddies, create memories, and learn. This summer, August 2016, I went with my nine year old, Jenelle Alicia Ramsey, to India for my classmate’s wedding.
When receiving the invitation from Sid, my classmate, to his wedding in India I was delighted. Sid invited the cluster of about 70 people and roughly 60 people traveled across the world to support him on his special day. It was a pleasure to be able to support my classmate while also experience my first Indian wedding. I decided to also bring my daughter and give her the experience of traveling across the world to experience Indian culture first hand. Of course, this trip was not an inexpensive trip. This summer I was a summer associate at Citi, a great internship experience where I have received a full time offer from. To make sure this trip happened, I made sacrifices to save in order to give her the unique experience.
I know exposing her to different side of the world will show her the way of life that others have outside of the United States.
The experience gives her another view on how society can operate and also have a better understanding on interacting with others from different cultures. It allows her to have an open mind and learn about what exists outside of her normal routine.
Through the food, interactions with other people, site seeing, and the preparation to go to India she learned so much. Prior to going to India she learned about the different fevers, and diseases that exists in other countries due to climate and what are some of the precautions one must take as a traveler. While there she learned how Indian weddings are different from those typically done in the US. She learned about the HINDU gods, the food, and even pointed out her very own observations.
When traveling with her, I was not afraid of having a long layover. I made the most of my overnight layover in Dubai when traveling back from India to the US. Landing at 6pm on a Saturday night and leaving Sunday at 3pm back to New York I decided to leave the airport, visit burj khalifa and the Dubai mall Saturday night and booked a desert camel ride safari Sunday morning. Through the entire experience we were able to experience 2 countries and cultures.
