By maxleo43
Hello and welcome to my first Blog Post! My name is Max and I am part of the second cohort of GW’s Global Bachelor’s Program (GBP). The Global Bachelor’s Program is a comprehensive study abroad program with students from the Columbian College of Arts and Sciences, Elliott School of International Affairs, and School of Business. There are around 26 of us who are in GBP and we will all be going to Shanghai shortly, along with Stephen Suranovic, an economics professor at GW. As part of GBP, I am required to either spend two semesters abroad (Shanghai included) and hold an international summer internship or spend three semesters abroad. The idea is that by spending this time abroad, students will develop a truly global perspective of the world.
I will be studying at Fudan University, which is about 20 minutes from downtown Shanghai. The semesters at Fudan do not match up perfectly with GW’s, and so I do not leave for China until February 11th and don’t start classes until March 5th. The last day of finals is July 6th. Unlike universities in the U.S., spring break isn’t a thing at Fudan, and I only get about three days off for holidays during the whole semester.
I am in a rather peculiar situation in that instead of returning to the U.S. after my semester at Fudan, I will be heading straight to Mumbai, India, to intern for VIVA Group, a real estate development company. I am studying Finance and Real Estate and am considering a career in real estate development. As such, I am hoping that this internship will provide me with some clarity. As a result of this internship, I will be gone from the middle of February through the beginning of September, almost 8 months total.
I keep getting asked how I feel about leaving, and I am still struggling to find a good answer. I am excited for the change of scenery and way of life. Unsurprisingly, I am also nervous. I do not speak the language, I have never been to China, and I am still not even sure what a typical Chinese meal looks like. While I could describe my feelings as nervous or excited, I think that I could best be summed up as optimistic. I do not know what I will encounter. I just simply have no idea what the next eight months of my life will look like, and I am completely okay with that.