Frank Thompson - Wilson College Edu, Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, USA

Study USA programme 2022/23

“Study USA was a lifetime's worth of memorable moments that will crystalize in my mind forever.”

Memorable moments

There are too many to choose from!

From travelling 21 states, to actually being educated in the US, to going to Florida with my sister and Iceland with my father for Christmas and dancing with Mexicans in Mexico, or missing my flight and learning salsa dancing in Costa Rica.

In the College side of things it was cool to meet American students for the first time, live with them, be friends with them, and discover how their education system is run and what they like to do for fun.

I especially got on well with the international students and campus communities and enjoyed travelling to New York City and Washington DC with them!

Experiencing a new culture

Huge differences in culture. Like huge. So I would recommend be ready for some culture shocks.

I guess a similarity of the culture would be the inviting people along to places. I would say the culture in the university is similar to that of our high schools which was an interesting jump back in the time machine.

They are also hugely into sports, so if you love sports then you might get along to a few games. I personally got an opportunity to go to Philadelphia Flyers Ice Hockey, The Hoyas Washington DC Div 1 Basketball Match and the Tennis US Open in New York!

Traveling was the largest and most fun part of my journey. In total I did 21 states, Canada, Mexico, Iceland, and Costa Rica.

I spent Fall Break in Philadelphia; for Halloween, I was invited to a week in Vegas by my friends; then during Thanksgiving Break I took myself to Denver and drove through the Rocky Mountains.

Come Christmas, I took a flight to Miami and took a train-ride up to West Palm Beach then Orlando and visited Disney World and Hollywood Studios!

After the Christmas break I took myself to Boston to see the Red Sox stadium, flew to Chicago and had Deep-Dish Chicago-style pizza.

The trip continued to St. Louis, Nashville, LA, Seattle and finally up to Vancouver where I met people I had done business projects with during COVID.

The totality of my trips went on from there (and not to be long-winded) but Spring Break I went to the Moon, NASA in Houston, San Antonio River Walk and The Alamo.

Then Dallas for St. Patrick's Day, Austin TX and then flew out to New Orleans and spent the nights in the home of Jazz in the French Quarter.

My final trip was to San Francisco where I cycled across the Golden Gate Bridge, old town Sacramento, Phoenix Arizona.

Challenges

There were a lot of challenges and in different areas. I found the major challenge was learning to deal with the academic system, which is different to home so you have to learn to be adaptable.

They also had classes at 8AM and I found it quite difficult to wake up in the morning for classes.

It is attendance-based grades so if you do not go to a class, you could very well lose a grade or two which might be the crucial amount required for you to pass and get a 3.0 GPA. How to overcome this?

Be reasonable with your social life, make sure it does not take up too much of the night and maybe catch naps in the afternoon.

The most important part of challenges at the college and dealing with them is having a good contact and communication with the staff!

It is really important to make an effort to get to know people and not just students, make yourself known and talk with the professors.

Making friends

Having the Irish card on your side really helped in making friends, however finding good friends was a bit more difficult.

You can become quite like a novelty for people since you are Irish and your accent is different, some people only wish to be friends for that reason, so I would recommend to ask people to drive you somewhere and you will really find out who is interested in you and who is not.

I always put myself out there and invited my roommate who was not as social so that he could have a better experience at the university in his time as well.

The more people you share experiences with, the more fun memories you can have.

I made really good friends with an international student from Cameroon that I still talk to on video calls to this day and snapchat a few American students that I made really good friends with throughout the year.

Advice

Be yourself but ramp up and boost your 'normal-no' to super and YES.

You will be placed out of your comfort zone constantly, from making friends, shifting and learning new cultures, attending classes in different formats and learning to socialise in a new way, the key to it all is be open to EVERY opportunity, and say yes no matter the mood, as a lot of things you do spontaneously will be the best memories you have for the rest of your life!

I highly recommend saying hello to everybody, try to get to know their names and try get involved in what they are doing even if it seems a bit left-field.

Be sure to be prepared for all scenarios and save lots of cash to have when going abroad to maximise your experience.

Last of all, get involved on campus in any way that you can and see the benefits of creating some lifetime friendships and perhaps you will come back and visit one day!