Written by Mia Miller
Deciding to attend a college in another country is already daunting. Now imagine studying abroad while studying abroad! This was the experience of Isabelle Pereira ’25, who used her off-campus study experience to go abroad once again with an international internship
Isabella is a rising Senior with a passion for communication and journalism. With what she calls a “nomadic childhood,” Isabella thinks of Venezuela as her home country but moved nearly every 4 years. It may be because of that that staying in one place for too long makes her restless and begin thinking of the next adventure somewhere new.
When she first came to Denison, she hadn’t ever considered studying off-campus. She was already here as an international student and the thought of studying abroad didn’t occur to her until her sophomore year. Surrounded by friends making plans to study abroad, she decided to explore her options. “I don’t want to say I was influenced, but that’s kind of what it was.” This, along with her desire to experience a new place for a semester, drove her to start the OCS application process. What she didn’t know at the time was this was the start of a journey that would lead to her living in Prague, Czech Republic, twice.
In the fall of 2023, she flew to Europe to spend the semester in Prague, with the CIEE Prague: Communications, New Media, and Journalism program. Even though she had never been to Europe, she jumped in wholeheartedly and took advantage of every opportunity. Throughout the week, she kept busy with classes, her internship, content creation, volunteering as an English tutor, and traveling.
Working as a Social Media Ambassador with CIEE, Isabella created reels, blogs, and other content to share about the study abroad experience. She loved the creative freedom she had and found herself often thinking about what videos might attract people to CIEE. Her blogs shared about the experience of wine tasting, attending a hockey match, and other exciting parts of student life. The internship she had with the British Chamber of Commerce, on the other hand, afforded her less creative freedom, but gave her hard skills and valuable insight into what she wants out of future professional roles.
Apart from her work, Isabella took special interest in class offerings not available at Denison. When the only class left to fill her schedule was Czech Family, Schools, and Child Development, she was skeptical. “I am not child oriented and I was not excited about the class,” she says. It was only after class began that she realized her ignorance of Czech culture and history. It turned out that she enjoyed learning about child development within a post-communist country and how that affects education, maternal leave, and other parts of life. Beyond the content the course was designed to teach, it ended up contributing to her understanding of Czech history, politics, and culture.
Another favorite class was her International Reporting class. Despite not speaking any Czech, Isabella had to go out into the community and interview strangers for her class assignments. The first day was intimidating, as the professor began by saying they should drop the class if they’re “looking to party or earn easy credit.” However, that instructor ended up being a great resource for Isabella, supporting her and even hosting her at her house to talk about her career goals. The reporting class itself forced her out of her comfort zone and into the community.
To learn some Czech, a language she had never previously studied, Isabella used Duolingo the summer before and practiced simple phrases. “Saying hello in Czech (ahoj) made people excited and more comfortable talking to me.” Even with some basic knowledge of Czech, working across the language barrier for class was a challenge and taught her that it’s okay to rely on others for help. She recalls not being able to find any English articles or translations for an assignment. Lost on where to look, she called a local news agency, who connected her with an English-speaking employee. The employee then emailed her a number of articles in English and shared where to find more. This kindness was not a one-time occurrence, as many people helped her throughout her semester
For reporting projects, she found herself interviewing ministers, political party members, a drug dealer, and many others. Her most memorable interview was with someone from the Romani community. With her teacher translating for her, she learned that the Romani community was often segregated and excluded from broader society. The man she interviewed experienced homelessness, drug addiction, and homophobia during peak communism, but was able to rebuild his life and give back to his community. His life story and all he had overcome inspired her, making her feel happy to be in the position where she could share it with others.
On the weekends, she took advantage of Prague’s proximity to other European destinations and traveled to Croatia, Tenerife, Italy, Poland, and Germany. According to Isabella, low-cost airline tickets and backpacking is what enabled her to travel to so many places. The highlight of her travels, she says, was meeting up with an old friend she hadn’t seen in seven years. Isabella had to leave Venezuela and her friend in 2017 due to socio-political conflict, so reuniting with her, staying at her house, and meeting her grandparents was a true joy.
With her passion for journalism and communication refreshed and now informed by a whole new approach, she returned to Denison for the spring semester. As summer approached, she was struggling to find an internship in the U.S. as an international student, with all the ones she wanted requiring U.S. residency. During her semester abroad, she’d become close with a CIEE center employee, so she emailed them to see if there were any opportunities to work for them. Within a week, they sent her back an application for a summer internship and gave her all the steps she needed to complete to apply.
This summer she’s in Prague again, but this time she is working as part of the marketing team for the High School Summer Abroad: Art Making in Prague’s Creative Studios program. During the two summer sessions, Isabella is attending activities with the students, taking photos and videos, and creating content for social media. She’s learning how to balance promoting the program with creating funny and engaging content.
Thinking back on her time in Prague so far, Isabella says she never expected to see so many places in her 20s. After her semester abroad, she was excited to travel again as she realized that “there is so much of the world left to see that maybe I wasn’t considering before.” Not only are there lots of places to see, but there is also lots of personal growth to be found in traveling. “Imagine coming home from a busy day working and you are tired but you have to cook and wash your clothes and then hang them on a string to dry because there is no dryer.” Cooking for herself, managing her schedule, and planning her travels, has all helped her to develop her independence and become more comfortable with being alone.
But just because she was comfortable being alone, doesn’t mean she traveled alone. “Even if you don’t have a close group of friends, if you’re planning a trip and don’t want to go alone, say it out loud.” Isabella quickly discovered that everyone else on her program wanted to travel and were open to going with her. For example, she was having dinner and mentioned she wanted to go to Germany for Oktoberfest, but didn’t feel comfortable going alone. A girl she had just met that day said she’d go with her, so they booked the tickets and it turned out to be one of her favorite trips.
In terms of professional growth, she has learned a lot about executing her content ideas and getting others to buy into them and participate. She found that having her CIEE credentials made it easier for her to interview people on a higher level, which helped her add to her portfolio and gain experience reporting across a language barrier. Her time abroad will be valuable to future employers and the connections she has made will help her further her career.
To students considering studying off-campus but unsure about it, she wanted to share a Spanish saying she lives by. “Es mejor hacer algo y arrepentirse, que arrepentirse de nunca haberlo hecho,” meaning “Better to do something and regret it than regret not having done it at all.” She says that pushing yourself and facing your fears will not always be easy, but all of the fun and growth will outshine the challenges you faced.
As a rising senior, her post-graduation plans are undecided but she hopes to go into social media content strategist (marketing) or journalism. She plans to work abroad, especially with her Spanish citizenship, but is open to opportunities in the U.S. as well. If you’re wondering how you can read her work, visit her Linkedin here or her blog post Study Abroad as an International Student here!