J-School junior, Heewone Lim, was awarded the Global Gateway Initiative fellowship that is allowing her to study abroad in Utrecht, Netherlands this semester. Like many other students, Lim knew she wanted to make study abroad part of her college experience. The Global Gateway Initiative made her aspiration achievable.
“I took a gap year before coming to UW and I traveled a bit on my own, made a Dutch friend, visited Utrecht, and I really liked it,” Lim said. “I saw that there was a program here in Utrecht, I always knew I wanted to go abroad and then the stars just aligned.”
This initiative allows students with demonstrated financial need to study abroad byway of summer programs or fellowships. The purpose behind the initiative extends beyond just making programs available to students financially, it supports the Wisconsin Idea.
The Wisconsin idea is the principle that “education should influence people’s lives beyond the boundaries of the classroom.” Learning, growing and experiencing new things while studying abroad and being able to share those adventures when returning to the UW–Madison campus positively impacts the community, fulfilling the ideals of the Wisconsin Idea.
For the fellowship there are a variety of tasks and activities students must complete while they are immersed in their new culture and learning environment. Fellows must create multiple “blog posts” throughout the semester that describe their time abroad. The posts can vary in form from giving students creative freedom to showcase their experiences, talents and interests. These assignments are posted for future students to use as a way to gain insights into what life abroad can look like.
“I think what the fellowship is trying to do is to get a good profile of Badgers of different backgrounds, Badgers who have different interests, Badgers who have different visions for the future and for the study abroad program,” Lim said.
Even though Lim has only been part of the fellowship for about a month she already recommends this experience to any interested students. The mix of creative liberty in assignments, lack of major requirements and the variety of interests that can be explored abroad through the Global Gateway Fellowship are all reasons Lim believes interested students should explore the program.
“If people are interested in it, they should definitely reach out to the study abroad program and maybe reach out to students who have had the fellowship before,” Lim said.
Once Lim returns home from her studies, she will have a few more tasks to complete to cap off her fellowship. Lim will need to create a narrative surrounding her program experience, participate in an outreach activity, attend a UW Global Gateway outreach event and look into a variety of student positions in international-related offices on campus.
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