Student Bloggers

Recently, the Arcadia Abroad team had a virtual meeting with Shang Andrews, the recipient of the ESU Luard Morse Scholarship for the 2022-2023 academic year. The meeting was an opportunity to learn more about Shang's journey and experiences planning for and studying abroad. Here is that exchange-

Arcadia Abroad: Tell us about yourself and how you came to study abroad with Arcadia Abroad.

Shang Andrews: So I'm from, Virginia. I lived in North Carolina for a little bit. Then we moved to Virginia when I was in late middle school. I attended North Carolina as a computer engineering major. I knew about studying abroad programs, but I didn't think that was really applicable to me. Most engineers don't study abroad because we have to get a lot of courses in and, you know, some people graduate in five years, so I didn't think that was a part of the plan, but I saw a couple of my friends, looked at the ESU Luard Morse Scholarship and the programs at Arcadia. 

AA: When did study abroad become an idea for you? Or when was the first time you even heard about study abroad? Like what was your first exposure to it?

SA: A lot of my family has there been outside the US to begin with.  We never had passports. I had to apply for my passport as soon as I got the offer. But I really only heard about it throughout my university. I knew a couple of kids who went on programs where they would go and then help out communities. These are the types of programs I knew about. 

SA: The first time it actually became a reality was when my friends found out about the scholarship. The ESU Luard Morse Scholarship is a full-ride scholarship, that was the only way. 

AA: How did you learn about the (ESU Luard Morse) scholarship? How is it promoted on campus? How do people talk about it? 

SA: So there's a lady at my university, Alsace-Lorraine Gallop, and she sends out tons of emails and gives us scholarship opportunities nonstop. So one of my friends got an email from her about the scholarship and they applied to it and I applied to it. She helped me like do the essays and prepare for the interview. 

AA: Does she work in the study abroad office? 

SA: No, she doesn't work for the study abroad office. She works closely with them. 

AA: Did you apply for any other study abroad scholarships?

SA: No, it was this or nothing. 

AA: Did you receive any other financial aid package at A&T currently? 

SA: Nothing at the moment. I had a couple of scholarships freshman and sophomore year. Mainly family and loans helping me pay for school. 

AA: You just got back from your study abroad experience. How do you feel you changed throughout the experience? What were your expectations going into the experience and how did those evolve for you? 

SA: So originally, I didn't see study abroad as an option, it looked cool, but it didn't look like it was worth my time necessarily. I felt like the internet and movies and TV shows give me enough “abroad experience” that I don't really need to immerse myself.

But when I got there, there were a lot of different things that I was exposed to. I was able to live a life in the UK. And I got to meet a bunch of other people from different backgrounds and other countries that also got that same experience. I didn't realize how diverse London was, to begin with. Getting to know different people, getting to know their stories, and getting to know how different, but also similar we were, was a big part of my experience. 

Other than that, of course, there were cultural shocks from different places I visited, the food I got to eat, and the education systems. The UK system is similar but a good bit different from America. I had to evaluate my strengths and weaknesses to determine where I fit within the scheme of things.

AA: If someone asked you what is your identity, what would it be? Did studying abroad change that for you? 

SA: I identify as African American, black, you know, from America. I was told that when I got to the UK that I would be seen as American rather than black. And I didn't really understand what that meant, but when I got there I realized people didn't really see race in the same way, per se. They would just see me as an American. So there was never that sense of a black community over there, I guess I could say. I thought that community would expand a bit more outside of America, but I would say America is definitely more close-knit than abroad. 

AA: So what kind of communities did you find for yourself during your program?

SA: I mean, engineers, we’re all the same. I gotta say, nerds are nerds across the world. Like, it doesn't matter. They all seemed to like my friends back at home, they were all into the same thing, the same shows, the same games, same material. And so, I found people within my classes to be highly relatable in that aspect.

AA: When people you met asked you about your homeschool, did you have to explain what an HBCU is? Were people curious? 

SA: Yeah, that's funny because even in America, people don't know about HBCUs. And so explaining to people abroad, what that was, I would say they were definitely more intrigued because it's kind of unheard of per se.

I found some people who did know what HBCU meant, which gave me a sense of pride in my school as well because I didn't think, people knew what A&T was. But everyone who I explained it to, saw it as a cool place to live. I mean, in Europe, you go to a school in your country, you're going to see people from your country. And so it's not too different from that, seeing people having a school fulfill people of similar culture. So it was easier to explain, I'd say.

AA: What made you choose the Queen Mary University of London program? 

SA: Although I was encouraged to attend Oxford, that wasn't really the environment I was looking for. Besides Queen Mary, I also got accepted into two other well-respected UK programs, but they didn't have the engineering classes I wanted to take. I wanted to be in London, not two or more hours from London. So once I started looking at my options, I picked Queen Mary. And I found East London to be one of the more diverse areas of the city.

AA: How much did you interact with Arcadia outside of orientation? Did you take advantage of the Arcadia Center or any excursions/activities? Most importantly, did you feel supported? 

SA: The number one thing that Arcadia did that I found appealing was the first week of orientation because going to a different country is tough. The first week they set us in that hotel and gave us a couple of walks in the city explaining to us how the Tube works, explaining to us just how the culture is different, certain slang, certain areas to go to… That definitely gave me the right stepping stone to living abroad as a whole. I got to meet people, and even though they might not have been the group I ended up spending the most time with, it gave me something to bounce off of. It gave me my confidence. So I really enjoyed that whole period.  

I took part in a couple of excursions- to a cool sign museum and then the London Eye. So those are cool events. The London Eye has a long line and so it was good to go to it without having to worry about stuff like that. 

I also used the Arcadia mail service, especially for important packages. My mom sent me a couple of things I needed to get, so I was able to send that to Arcadia as well. And it did help. 

Arcadia also sent a lot of emails about the strikes, which was helpful. I was confused on how that worked or what it really affected. But they kept us updated and taught us a bunch of stuff. 

AA: Did you take yourself on your own excursions? 

SA: Oh yeah. I explored the city and went outside. I went to Spain by myself and I went to Ireland by myself once. Other than that, I went with groups of friends - it was fun. 

AA: What are some of your hobbies at home and outside of schoolwork?

SA: Sport-wise, I like playing tennis a lot. There's a team at A&T, so we hit around every now and then, and there was actually a club at Queen Mary, so I got to go to the club. European tennis players are good, so it was fun to play with them Tuesdays and Thursdays. 

I also like watching movies with my friends. They actually had a fun program with a movie theater a couple of blocks away from Queen Mary that has $5 movies on Thursdays. So I was able to go to all the movies I wanted to see for really cheap. So that was really cool because a ticket here in the USA is like $20. 

I joined like five different associations. I joined yoga, tennis, and knitting. I got into crocheting for a bit. I did the running club. I did judo for a while. I would never have thought to try judo, but I tried that out for a bit. They had recycling environmental clubs, that was cool. They had a machine learning association.

So anything I wanted to do, there was an association for it, which was the coolest part because I feel like clubs in America, you have to know people to get in or apply for it and there are usually a lot of costs associated. I made tons of friends this way. 

AA: Could tell us about an experience or moment with someone you met on your program that was the most impactful and why. 

SA: Yeah. Of course, A&T has given me a lot of benefits of being in the community, but studying abroad has given me an opportunity to expand that community. I met a lot of different people from different countries. 

I met a guy from  Istanbul and he was talking about the oppression of a woman there and certain rights that he doesn't get in other countries.

I met another friend from the south of France. And he talked about how his city was different academically, how there were not a lot of opportunities for him to be in aerospace, and going to the UK gave him an opportunity to diversify his education.

Even people from America, I met a girl from Boston and she's Haitian. So she gave me a lot of insight into what it's like to live in a community of Haitians and how that's spread out across the world as well. She visited France and met some of her relatives in France as well, so that was really cool to learn about. 

But yeah, people from faraway places, even like Australia or Ireland are close-knit. So getting that kind of diverse network was very insightful, I have to say. 

AA: Thinking about the application process, were there any barriers or anything standing in your way that almost made you not want to do this? What were they and how did you manage to get past that? 

SA: I was lucky I had a scholarship to pay tuition. I would say the challenge of finding classes and then learning I couldn't take some of them really started to deter me because I had a four-year plan to work with. I wasn't gonna sacrifice my ability to graduate on time. I was able to work around that. My Arcadia Advisor, Christina had tons of meeting with me to get the classes I needed to take and make sure they transferred to my school. If that hadn't happened, I wouldn't have gone. Thankfully, I was able to finalize those details and everything worked out. They want you to actually have a good time and succeed.

AA: Do you have any advice that you would give like to a student looking to study abroad or even a student from North Carolina A&T? 

SA:  Yeah, I highly recommend studying abroad. After I got the scholarship, four other friends of mine decided to study abroad. So I’ve already started to tell people how great of an experience it was and to look into different avenues to actually go. Having a program to study abroad is a big help. 

So any advice? I would say, know what you're getting into. A hundred percent. Like just do your research on the universities that you're gonna attend, on the classes you're gonna take when you actually get there, how close certain things are to places. 

I was very fortunate that I was able to travel anywhere I wanted from the place I was at. The airport was close. I was able to go to the supermarkets next door, barbershops, just basic stuff like that. But get to know the area, get to know what you're getting into doing. Your research is number one. 

AA: Thinking about your next steps for your career, what do you have planned after graduation and do you think that study abroad may have a direct impact on those plans? 

SA: It had a big impact. My plan was to do a master degree for about two years and get that before starting working. Now I plan on taking a year abroad and working online for that, because my job, in particular, I can work online. I can apply to a company for a full-time position and they have offices around the world and I can just work online or work in that office. So I decided to spend a year abroad and work and then make some money to pay for a master's degree program. 

Studying abroad gave me the confidence to go abroad because I was very hesitant. Now with the passport, I feel I can go anywhere and do anything I want.