Transylvania University’s Office of Global and Intercultural Engagement is a great resource for students who want to broaden their horizons past campus. However, the office doesn’t just provide students with opportunities to study abroad, it also plays a huge role in helping them grow as global citizens and prepares them to use their global knowledge in their future professional lives.
Here are two testimonies from alums who discuss how grateful they are for their time spent abroad while at Transy — they explain how their experiences helped them grow as both students and professionals.
The university believes that a study abroad experience is a natural part of a liberal arts education. “Living and learning in an unfamiliar setting among people with different backgrounds is a valuable way to understand more about yourself and the wider world. You will become better equipped to see similarities rather than differences and to make decisions that may have a global impact.”
These two students are prime examples of that sentiment.
Jamie Vescio ’17
During her time at Transy, Jamie Vescio was a Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship recipient and studied for a summer in Tanzania. After graduation, she was selected as a Fulbright English Teaching Assistant in France for the 2018-19 academic year. Currently, she resides in Louisville teaching kindergartners to be global citizens in Kentucky’s first French immersion program at Whitney Young Elementary.
“In my teaching role, I facilitate mathematics instruction for all kindergartners within a French immersion setting, meaning that students learn concepts, such as counting, number identification and early number sense, exclusively in French. Dual language immersion has both pedagogical and social-emotional benefits for children who have historically faced inequity within their educational experiences. I am excited to be at the forefront of this program’s development, where I’m able to apply my educational and global experiences within a classroom setting.”
Ben Costigan ’12
Ben Costigan spent a semester in Barcelona, Spain, during his time at Transy. Afterward, he applied for and received a Fulbright grant in Spain. He currently resides in Copenhagen, Denmark, working for Novo Nordisk A/S in a finance role.
“It is no exaggeration to say that my semester in Barcelona changed my life,” he said. “The experience of living and studying abroad took my cultural curiosity to new heights. More importantly, I learned that such curiosity could be leveraged to open doors in my professional life. In the years since graduating from Transy, I have been afforded an unfair share of fascinating opportunities, from serving as a Fulbright grantee in Spain to obtaining a master’s degree from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy to now working for a big pharma company in Denmark. I truly believe that none of these events would have come to pass were it not for my semester spent studying abroad. I am forever grateful to the Office of Global and Intercultural Engagement for providing me with such a wonderful experience.”