Opening Up a World of Possibility

Posted by BCSAadmin on 07/26/2021

By: Brianna Condilenios, Simon Fraser University, winner of the spring 2020 BC Study Abroad Scholarship

Study Abroad Destination: Netherlands

Openness: the quality of being receptive to new ideas, opinions, or arguments; open-mindedness. This calls for active listeners who do not wish to have their expectations confirmed, but who bring with them a certain curiosity and openness to the world.

[dictionary.com]

The sheer amount of diversity on this planet inspires me. The world is bursting with brilliant cultures, people, languages, places, food, music, and countless other marvellous wonders. There is simply so much to learn, experience, and love. For me this sort of magnitude translates into a...

Tags: BC Study Abroad Study Abroad student blog Simon Fraser University Netherlands BCSA Scholarship Winner
Category: Student Blog
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Lunar New Year in Southeast Asia

Posted by BCSAadmin on 07/19/2021

By: Theresa Doan, Simon Fraser University, winner of the spring 2020 BC Study Abroad Scholarship

Study Abroad Destination: Singapore

Religion has never been a large part of who I am, but in recent years, I have made more of an effort to understand the religion my mother used to heavily practice. My mom, being the only person in my family who is religious, taught us some of the larger Buddhist practices growing up. Throughout the years, we practiced less and less, and my little connection to the culture and religion was diminishing. The past three years, on Lunar New Year, I have gone to the temple my family and I used to go to growing up, and have prayed for success and happiness for my family for the new year. I would go by myself...

Tags: student blog BC Study Abroad BCSA Scholarship Winner Simon Fraser University Singapore Study Abroad
Category: Student Blog
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Being in Asia During the Start of COVID-19

Posted by BCSAadmin on 07/12/2021

By: Theresa Doan, Simon Fraser University, winner of the spring 2020 BC Study Abroad Scholarship

Study Abroad Destination: Singapore

It was Lunar New Year weekend and news was spreading about this infectious flu that was coming from the Wuhan province in China. Knowing that people were travelling in and out of China and all around Asia meant that if the virus were to spread, this would be the weekend it started. After that weekend, things had really blown up in Asia causing people all over the continent to stir and panic.

My friends and I went through the same frenzy process everyone did in the early stages of COVID, we just did it two months earlier than our friends in the West. Individuals were bulk buying from the grocery...

Tags: BC Study Abroad student blog BCSA Scholarship Winner Singapore Simon Fraser University Study Abroad
Category: Student Blog
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How 6 Months Turned into 3, and What Those Months Mean to Me Now

Posted by BCSAadmin on 04/19/2021

Theresa Doan, Simon Fraser University, winner of the spring 2020 BC Study Abroad Scholarship

Study Abroad Destination: Singapore

When I packed for Singapore, I wasn’t planning on coming back to Canada until mid-June. The original plan was to finish my exchange semester in Singapore and explore Southeast Asia with one of my friends from home, but of course that’s not how this story played out. Instead my exchange ended up being three short, but very sweet months.

If I had any advice for other students going on exchange, I would tell them to go to as many host university exchange events as possible. If host universities are anything like NUS, there will be 3-5 different kinds of events made for exchangers to meet each other. I...

Tags: student blog Study Abroad BCSA Scholarship Winner Singapore SFU Simon Fraser University Stories from Abroad
Category: Student Blog
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