Opinion: Why you should book that flight and study abroad

By Danielle Paul

Danielle Paul is the Senior Culture Editor for the Western Gazette (The University of Western Ontario, Canada). She has written this blog about her LISS 2023 experience.

If you’re thinking about wanting to go on an exchange abroad, take my advice and do it. Travelling abroad changed my whole university experience — and it would probably change yours too.

Now I get it, it’s not exactly an impulse decision and it’s understandable to have doubts, I did
too. I always knew I wanted to study abroad, but I didn’t like the idea of having to leave for a
whole semester or year and I had a lot of reasons for not wanting to do that.

Firstly, I didn’t like the thought of leaving my friends and family for at least four months. Missing
an entire semester, to me, meant missing out on experiences and memories here that I couldn’t
get back.

Financially, I was also nervous about finding a sublet and having my roommates live with
someone they didn’t know or pay rent while I wasn’t living there. I also didn’t want to leave my
job that I had during the school year.

Academically, I was also unsure about the amount of courses I would be taking and how they
would transfer into my program. Would going on exchange delay my graduation?

It was safe to say that leaving for a whole semester or year wasn’t for me. So that brought me —
and likely others who have similar doubts — to the question: what now?

Western offers a lot of exchange programs and after assessing what my personal goals for exchange were, I decided Leeds International Summer School for the month of July was my top choice.

The program itself was phenomenal. I met people from all over the world, I got to travel around England on organized field trips and even took two academic modules that counted as a 1.0 credit for my program. I lived on the University of Leeds campus where I got my own room and shared a washroom with one other person. LISS also included breakfast, and lunch from Monday to Friday — score!

Travelling, studying and experiencing life in Leeds really helped me gain perspective on my goals after graduating. Before going to Leeds, I had been laser-focused on writing the LSAT and going to law school.

But after going abroad myself, I realized that I wanted to focus on travelling and new experiences before
committing myself to one career so early on. This has already led me to pursue different international graduate programs for next year and look into careers in international law.

I can confidently say Leeds changed my life for the better, it was something I didn’t expect but
realized I’m so thankful for.

Perhaps the best part of my experience was the amazing people I met on exchange. I now have best friends in Denmark, Hong Kong, Japan, Australia and across Canada. I got to meet so many amazing people from all over the world that I never would have had the opportunity to without the program.

Western also sent at least 10 people to LISS. I met one of my closest friends on exchange and I now get to experience that friendship at home.

Travelling abroad changed my university experience and my life. I’ve discovered a passion for travelling and international work, and I bonded with amazing friends from all over the world and right here at Western. It gave me the confidence and courage to travel alone and allowed me to broaden my horizons.