Student/Alumni Testimonials

Ann Gottlieb
Virginia Polytechnic – Interior Design

Culture Shock

Studying abroad has proved to be the best experience I have ever had in my life. Now that I have returned home, I am not the same person I was before I left. The experience made me grow immensely as a person, and if I had not gone abroad, I would not be who I am today. Being in London has not only changed my aspects of life, but also my education, and shaped my outlook towards my future career.

When I first arrived in London, everything was irritating and frustrating. There were a great number of differences between American InterContinental University London, and my school back in the US, Virginia Tech. I did not like the differences, and felt that my school at home was run much better. I did not like my professors, or the fact that I had to design in the metric system. Sharing a bedroom, and living with an extremely wide variety of girls made me want to run home as fast as I possibly could. Almost the entire first month I was in London, I really wanted to go home, and I wasn't even going to stay a second term like I had originally planned.

But soon, and I don't even remember what had triggered it, I began to absolutely love London, and living in London. I grew to really enjoy my professors, and my roommates. I also enjoyed my education much more at AIU than my education back at Virginia Tech. There were so many little things that were done for the students that Virginia Tech would never think of doing. All of the things I disagreed with the professors about prior to enjoying London, I realized what they wanted really was much more practical than what the professors at Virginia Tech ask for. From the things they had asked me to do that I disagreed with, I am now able to use that knowledge back in the US. Things that are occurring currently in the projects I am doing, students in my class do not know how to do them, and I have done them.

Aside from learning from the things I strongly initially disliked, I also learned a great deal just from living in a large city that is surrounded by great design. Places I went to, restaurants I ate in, and the traveling I had done, opened my eyes to so many new and great ideas for design. Those are experiences in which I would have never had if I never studied abroad. Being able to see not only such famous structures, but also the most stylish of new interiors opened my mind to so many new ideas for projects I am doing currently in school. When you are surrounded by great design, you are inspired so much more than you ever could be, trying to design in a very small, rural town. The things I saw just from traveling, this alone, was worth being abroad.

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