How Studying Abroad Helped me Grow as a Journalist
“I had to delve into the crooks of my own curiosity… ”
“I’m just applying on a whim,” I stated to my mom over the phone. “It’s a lottery and isn’t even based on grades. I doubt I’ll even get in.”
Every year, students at Emerson College anxiously apply to Kasteel Well: a popular study abroad program in The Netherlands. Out of the hundreds of students who apply, about only 80 to 85 are chosen through a random lottery that sorts applicants by their majors.
Despite my belief that I would not be chosen into the program, I was proven wrong when I received an email stating my acceptance in early November of 2013.
On September 11, 2014 approximately 85 students and myself boarded Delta Airlines to Amsterdam, The Netherlands. A place, so magical, that people rode on bikes more than in cars and where grass was so green that it seemed photoshopped.
Although we did not stay there long, many students, like myself, were already tingling with anticipation and excitement to explore not only Amsterdam, but other cities that we imagined from books and movies, but had never seen in person.
Arriving to the castle, which is located in the Limburg area, turned the magical feeling of living in a dream into reality.
Pulling into the castle, students stared in awe at the two motes that surrounded the outer and inner areas of the courtyard and gardens. Large fish and black swans swam beneath us as we tugged our luggage over the small bridge towards the grand brick edifice and large glass windows that we would be living in for the next three months.
Everything about the castle was, and still remains, magical. The elaborate chandeliers glistened with sunrise and sunset, turning the whole room golden orange. The sound of the piano in Dulcia’s Lounge constantly filled the empty spaces in the castle, reaching all the way to the third floor dorms. There were even rumors about a ghost named Sophie. Some students stayed up late, hoping to catch a glimpse of a white floating figure of a young girl.
Reality quickly set in as classes started after a four-day orientation. Global Literature of Gender, Trauma, and Memory; History of European Music; French; and Feature Writing enveloped my schedule, twisting into a tornado of papers, tests, and videos.
Feature Writing at the castle changed my take on journalism. Taking the class on a whim, I knew that it would be a lot different than if I had taken it on main campus. I almost expected it to be easy, but it was anything but and everything else. I didn’t take into account the difficulty of finding stories in foreign countries, let alone the language barriers.
Within the 90 days that I lived in Kasteel Well, I traveled to Barcelona, Bruges, Venice, Amsterdam, Vienna, Bratislava, Paris, London, Rome, Dublin, and Prague. All beautiful places with gorgeous views and delicious food (not to mention a major cost to my bank account), but also inspiration as an artist, yogi, and journalist.
Finding a story for the class, was, therefore, easy. Honestly, it was one of the most exciting parts of the class. There was a whole new area of categories and topics to take advantage of. I ended up publishing three stories: a written feature on Deciphering Etiquette in the Red Light District, a video on Dumon Chocolatier in Bruges, Belgium, and a radio piece furthering research on holiday celebration in the chocolatier.
So how did traveling every weekend, spending money, going out to bars, and having a full-time class schedule help me with journalism?
It opened me up. It made me branch out of my comfort zone that had evolved during my freshman year of college. It forced me to take different routes to getting information, to do more than just email or do quick MOS (man on street) interviews.
I had to work for my stories, really work for them. I had to delve into the crooks of my own curiosity, conjure ideas, anticipate questions for my interviews and then simplify them in order to accommodate the language barriers with my interviewee’s. But within all of these steps, I learned to be calm. To not freak out, and to be open to the fact that my story angle could change at any moment during the research, interviewing, and writing processes.
Stories always develop, sometimes towards your angle, and other times away from it, but it is how you work and move with the changes that make the difference. I opened my heart to flexibility, preparing myself for a future career in journalism when change will be a constant matter.
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