<p>Hi everyone! I'm currently an NYU Senior at the Stern School of Business. I have studied abroad at NYU in London Spring 2012 and will be studying at University of Melbourne this fall on exchange. In addition to that, I've also volunteered in Indonesia and Kenya with Habitat for Humanity and will be volunteering in Argentina when my semester in Australia is done. </p>
<p>For any parents or students considering study abroad, please check out my personal website at Traveling</a> Abroad:*A College Student's Perspective - Home. It documents all of my abroad experiences and I hope it can be helpful.</p>
<p>Personally, I think every student should spend at least two weeks abroad doing some type of program if they can't actually study abroad for a full semester. There is SO MUCH that can be learned in a different country and I am a huge advocate. While I've enjoyed my time at NYU and in NYC the past three years, my travels abroad do not even compare. I hope this helps and again, please check out my website for more details on studying or volunteering abroad - Traveling</a> Abroad:*A College Student's Perspective - Home. </p>
<p>If you have any comments or suggestions on anything helpful that I can add to the site, fill out the form on the about me page!</p>
<p>Thank you and happy travels!</p>
<p>Hi Stephanie! Thanks a lot for sharing your website. I checked it out and it looks like you’ve done some awesome traveling. I’m just curious – have you done any ‘pay to volunteer’ programs, and if so, could you share your opinions about those experiences? Moreover, if you could provide critical feedback and any idea about how such volunteer programs could improve, what would it be? I work with an organization called [url=<a href=“http://www.omprakash.org/]Omprakash[/url”>http://www.omprakash.org/]Omprakash[/url</a>], and we are trying our best to offer enriching opportunities to people who want to volunteer abroad. As someone with a lot of experience, your opinion of our site would be valuable to us!</p>
<p>I’m happy you checked out my website! Both of my Habitat for Humanity trips were pay to volunteer - about $2000 each, plus airfare. So it was a hefty ~$4000 for each trip. I was able to pay for them through a lot of fundraising, school stipends and with my student loans. </p>
<p>Since I’ve only had these experiences with H4H, I can only really speak from my experience with them, but I’d say the most important thing international volunteers look for is the cultural immersion you can get from the program. While I easily could’ve spent the $4000 backpacking through Europe and exploring tons of different countries, I chose to volunteer in one location for two weeks because I knew I would be forming a connection with members of a community over a period of time. In both Kenya and Indonesia, I developed meaningful relationships and those alone were worth paying to go out there. If people have the funds, I think the biggest thing they look for in international programs are these meaningful experiences. If such experiences are offered, along with possible alternatives to raising money (such as Habitat’s fundraising site with fund.ly), I think many people would be interested. </p>
<p>I think your website is great and I would be happy to discuss more via the email address I have listed on my site!</p>
<p>Well isn’t that nice.</p>