Carson Holbrooks.

My time at the University of Florida has given me so many wonderful and colorful experiences, one that deserves further reflections is the International Scholars Program.  My journey through this program, including my study abroad has been transformative, sculpting and refining my love of travel and amplifying my antenna to learn from the world around us and engaging in conversation.  My experiences have significantly enhanced my skills of organization, adaptability and curiosity.

 

Living abroad on my own put organization to the forefront.  To quickly learn to navigate living in a foreign country, manage courses at university and hold a job with zero time to acclimate, meant quickly organizing time to manage public transportation to get to classes and work on time and to also organize my weeks to include all the duties like grocery shopping and managing a different climate.  Not everything was wonderful and easy and I learned how to deal with housing issues and culture differences while living on my own.  My apartment had a significant mold problem, and I needed to learn how to best approach this problem immediately after moving abroad.  This was not something I expected to have to deal with and would have been a challenge in my home country.  I learned adaptability as things always did not go as planned and adapting to situations quickly was an imperative skillset.  Adaptability also was a skill used in the classroom and at work that was new for me.  This opportunity really showed how important adapting to doing routine things is, as learning and working in a new culture opens many new ways to approach problem solving.

Curiosity is a skill that has an entirely new meaning for me and perhaps is the most transformative from my experiences with the International Scholars Program.  Throughout my travels and interactions with different cultures, I have realized being curious and looking at how others do and see things really is a such a valuable way of learning and gaining new perspectives to advance work and problem solving.  Specifically, I have fallen in love with learning how other countries design their cities and communities and am excited to incorporate this into my career.

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Taking my curiosity spectacles into the classroom, cultural events on campus and travels has been what has spurred me on to my next steps academically and career wise.  As for my career, I aspire to work in real estate and research international communities to implement best practices here in the United States for more sustainable land planning and communities where master planning gives residents access to more than simply another suburban or urban housing development.  I want to tackle issues facing our cities such as walkability, affordability, food insecurities, healthcare, limited access to healthy local nutrition, and functionally implementing smart cities with community ethos.  I believe studying and learning from cultures around the world is an untapped resource in American real estate, and I am excited to delve into these issues our cities and rural towns are facing.

 

The experiences I engaged with on campus were also eye opening for me.  When I travel, it feels quite normal to observe and learn about new cultures and traditions; however, before the ISP experience, I mostly viewed things at home as American.  Attending different cultural events and lectures really changed my perspective in realizing many international students continue to bring their traditions and diverse experiences into the classroom.  With my new curiosity, I began having more in-depth conversations with classmates and enriched my learning experience in all my studies.  The simple twist of changing my curiosity and perspective opened up so many new ways of learning and looking at situations.  These experiences have truly been the catapult to where I want to take my career.

Reflecting back on this experience I am proud of the growth and confidence I have gained.  The impact of my learning from UF and the International Scholars Program will stay with me and catapult me through my higher education and career, changing how approach new endeavors for the rest of my life.  The people and connections I have made have resulted in lifelong friendships and reinforced my love of learning new languages.   I will continue to be a avid traveler and am so excited for my next adventures!

 

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