By: Alexandria Frank ‘21

As a more formal introduction, my name’s Alexandria Frank and I’m an exchange student at USC from Howard University by way of Corona, CA. I’m born and raised in California but as far as my college experience goes, it’s been East Coast and it’s been Black. That’s because Howard is a historically-Black college/university (HBCU) located in Washington D.C. In other words, it’s very different from USC.

By: Grace Carballo ‘17

When you study abroad you have a few different types of programs to choose from. You can go to one of the USC Abroad locations, which I did last summer in Madrid, where you are taught by USC professors but in a new city. You can also choose to go through a study abroad provider, like CIES or SIT, which I did last fall through SIT Nicaragua. The benefits to going with a study abroad provider are, in my experience, a strong relationship with the local community, reciprocity, authenticity, and well-organized group excursions included in program costs. Currently, I am doing a direct enrollment study abroad experience, which means I am enrolled as a student as this University and take classes alongside Argentinian students. During my time at USC, I’ve had the pleasure of getting to know a number of exchange students, and it’s been very interesting to now be on the other side of that.