Next January may seem far away, but to be able to study abroad next spring there are many things you need to do before departure. Take advantage of the free time you’ll have this summer by taking care of the details required to study abroad now. Many documents take time to process and it is much easier to prepare them while you have some free time rather than while you are taking a full load next fall. Once you are accepted into a program your advisor at CEA will help you take the necessary steps to make preparing for your study abroad a breeze, without cramping your summer style. By applying now you have the ability to lock in the destination and program you want, plus you’ll be first in line for all the perks, like getting the housing you really want. Programs fill quickly so be sure to take advantage of this opportunity.

• Visa processing takes time
  
  • Get a head start on the process by being prepared. Your advisor will walk you through all the steps needed to make this process go smoothly and as soon as you are accepted, your MyCEA Account will provide you with online tutorials on where to go and who to contact to get your visa.
    
• Up your chances of your housing requests being met
  • Placement is first come first served! Each city has different housing options: CEA apartments, dorms, or homestays. Make sure that you get your first choice by getting ahead of the crowd.
    
• Enroll in popular courses that are likely to fill
  • Just like your home institution, there are only a certain number of seats and they fill up fast.
    
• Be the first to take the leap, your friends will follow
  • Just like you, your friends are waiting to see who is going where. The problem is that if you all wait too long then the programs you want might be full by the time you apply. Be the leader, make the choice and encourage your friends to follow.
    
• Secure current pricing and avoid the effects of a continued rise in the Euro
  • We all know what is going on with the economy and with the dollar dropping the Euro becomes more expensive. By applying to study abroad now you can lock in the price for your study abroad. You can also start converting dollars to your destination's currency right away and negate any future rise in the value of that currency against the dollar.
    
• Have ample time to set your own itinerary and make travel plans
  • Your study abroad is the perfect opportunity to travel. You can spend your summer researching and planning the amazing trips you will take during your study abroad: like skiing in the Alps, hopping around Munich, catching the French Open, seeing a soccer match, or attending the Cannes film festival.
    
• Give your academic advisor time to approve your courses
  • We all know that getting any outside course work approved can be a lengthy process and study abroad is no exception. Give your advisor ample time and it will make both of your lives a lot easier.
• Buy your airfare early and save
  • It’s no secret that the price of flights only gets higher the closer you get to departure and with crude oil at $126 a barrel, fares are only going to rise. Upon acceptance you can book your flight and lock in the lowest price for your airfare.
    
• Beat the deadline for a CEA scholarship
  • Study abroad is always more fun with extra money in your pocket. By applying now you can gain eligibility to submit for a CEA scholarship.
    
• Procrastination leads to stress – who needs it
  • This isn’t the paper you pulled an all nighter on during finals. Get in on study abroad now so you can be excited this fall, not stressed!

These CEA French Riviera study abroad students were chosen for the experience of a lifetime - an internship at the nationally renowned Cannes Film Festival. See firsthand what they have to say about bumping into Harrison Ford, the red carpet, and this ultimate resume building internship. The opportunity has taught them the logistics of behind the scenes work in addition to communication skills vital to working on the global level. Discover what the Cannes Film Festival is really like through their unique experiences, plus find out about their celebrity encounters.


Isha Vij, University of California - Berkeley


Noah Johnson, University of California - Berkeley


Elise Reid, University of Maryland College Park


Brittany Beran, Clemson University


More from students interning at Cannes

Active learning through hands-on courses and activities is ever-present at the CEA GlobalCampus: Florence. Italy in the Words of British and American Writers is a course that recently allowed CEA students some well-deserved publicity in an Italian online newspaper. Through this unique course students are afforded the unrepeatable opportunity to actively research and retrace the exact steps of such famed American writers as Lord Byron, E.M. Forster, Henry James, Mark Twain, Edith Wharton and Ernest Hemingway in order to explore at first hand the places and events, both real and imagined, that influenced them so greatly as evidenced through their now internationally revered words. The course gets even more “hands-on” as students the 'English' monumental cemetery (where the poets Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Walter Savage Landor and Arthur Hugh Clough are buried), experience a visit to the Casa Guidi (home to the Brownings), participate in a special backstage tour of the libraries and archives of the British Institute of Florence (founded in 1917) led by its archivist and are invited to go behind closed doors to visit the libraries, collections and gardens of Villa I Tatti, once home to the American connoisseur and writer Bernard Berenson. But perhaps last semester’s most impressive output of this course was the publication an article on the poetry of Henry Longfellow written by CEA study abroad student Erika Enggren. Read the article that led her to her 15 minutes of fame by a showcase of her words and thoughts in a popular Italian online news publication.

What do all recipients of the US Nobel Prize, Dr. Seuss, John F. Kennedy and Bill Clinton all have in common? You guessed it, before establishing their “claim to fame”, they either studied abroad or had an international learning experience that they could taut on their resume.

There is a lot to be said for a study abroad experience – it’s an opportunity to travel, to do something different and “off campus for a term or two during college, it offers transfer credit to your home campus, it aids in the language acquisition process, it just simply makes you a more interesting person!

But there’s something more to it, as evidenced by the trends emerging in corporate and professional settings in terms of qualities that employers seek when reviewing the thousands and thousands of today’s generation’s resumes in circulation. Many of the qualities that “set candidates apart from the pack” are parallel to the qualities that a study abroad experience helps to develop. Think about this. An international or study abroad experience on a resume shows adaptability and flexibility, it shows interest and initiative to explore outside of the “comfort zone”, it shows responsibility for one’s own experiences and success, it shows the ability to communicate in foreign environments, it shows interest or skill in intercultural competency, it shows one’s ability to handle stress in the unknown situation, it shows’ open-mindedness and self-reliance and self-confidence . . . the list goes on and on.

One of the most difficult things to do once you’ve studied abroad and polished your resume, is articulate the experience during a professional interview. This is one of the reasons why CEA has launched the CEA Study Abroad Social Networking site. We wanted to create a forum through which students could of course get acquainted and ask important questions about preparing for the experience of a lifetime. But even beyond that we’re encouraging students to share their stories and advice regarding how they successfully translated the skills they acquired during their study abroad experience to their current academic or professional pursuits. There’s no more authentic way to learn about everything that comes AFTER a program has ended then by reflecting and sharing with those who’ve already begun the practical application of studying abroad.