Americas

<p>A UC Los Angeles engineering student shares her journey to master Spanish and connect with her Puerto Rican heritage through study abroad. Despite the challenges of fitting language immersion into a packed STEM schedule, she discovered practical strategies—from living with non-English speakers to consuming Spanish-only media—that helped her achieve fluency in just five months. Her story offers valuable insights for students seeking to maximize their language learning abroad while balancing academic requirements.</p>

<p>For the first half of her semester in Rio, Katherine Rodriguez (UC Berkeley) found herself living in two time zones—checking good morning texts after full days of classes and lying awake at night for responses from California. Through therapy and establishing healthy boundaries, she learned that staying connected doesn't mean sacrificing sleep or the once-in-a-lifetime experience of studying abroad in Brazil.</p>

<p>How will you record the once-in-a-lifetime journey that is study abroad? Alex Masci (UC Berkeley) decided to rely on an a familiar technique: journaling, and in the process discovered how writing helped her achieve personal growth. Each entry is a testament to the power of journaling, capturing the most exciting moments and those subtle moments of growth and reflection all in the pages of a journal.</p>

<p>Wonder what it's like to study abroad in southern Chile? Check out Phoebe Goulden's (UC Berkeley) tips for home stay families, food, and where to study in this guide to Villarrica, Chile.</p>

<p>No trip to South America is complete without exploring the foods and flavors. From street carts to family tables, South America is a foodie paradise of flavor and texture - even for vegans!</p>

<p>Want to know how you can make your study abroad travel sustainable? Here are some actionable tips to help you study abroad with as little impact as possible and strategies to leave the community abroad a little better when you're gone.</p>

<p>Learn how studying abroad through Latin America helped one UC Santa Cruz student, Elisabet Raquel García, discover, protect, and finally embrace her identities as a multicultural queer Latina to take her place as family historian.</p>

<p>What is the food like in Argentina? What is there to see and do? And what are the classes and study abroad activities like? Carissa from UC Merced answers.</p>

<p>The Amazon rainforest, ancient Incan civilizations majestic mountain peaks—such are the study abroad experiences in Brazil as shared by Daniel Connell (UC Santa Barbara). "My time in Brazil was eye-opening. I immersed myself in a beautiful culture that was so different than anything I had previously experienced, and I gained more from it than I would have ever imagined."</p>