Julia Egan is a junior elementary education major in the College of Education. She received a Jepsen International Scholars Program Endowment scholarship to participate in a four-week trip to Alcalá de Henares, Spain, in the summer of 2015.
Through the “Jepsen Challenge,” your donations large and small help aspiring education majors afford to participate in unique study abroad opportunities offered by the College of Education. Alumnus Keith Jepsen ’67, M.S. ’68, and his spouse, Kathleen Dore, will match up to $25,000 in donations made by June 30, 2016, to the Jepsen International Scholars Program Endowment Fund and the College of Education Global Initiatives fund.
Photo courtesy of Julia Egan, a junior elementary education major who studied in Spain during the summer of 2015.
As you considered your options to study abroad, how important was it for you to receive a scholarship ?
By receiving the Jepsen International Scholars Endowment scholarship I was able to afford this experience and it made my dream come true of studying abroad in a Spanish-speaking country. Without this scholarship, I would not have had this opportunity.
Why do you believe it is important for other education majors to get a chance to have an international experience before they graduate?
I believe studying abroad has been the most beneficial aspect to my college experience. It is important to be immersed into a culture other than your own and to learn things first-hand you have been learning about in classrooms.
What was one of the unforgettable experiences you had in Spain?
My most memorable experience was touring the city of Ávila, which was my hometown for the trip. This was a beautiful town with so many things to do. I was also able to visit Madrid, Sevilla, Segovia, and Salmanca.
How do you believe what you learned from this experience will impact your teaching and future students?
Because of this experience, I better understand the needs of the many non-native English speaker students I will have in my future classroom, and that it is my job to help them to learn and understand English, and about our native speakers.
