On February 17th, 2015, Champlain College hosted an Open House for perspective students. I was fortunate to speak infront of the students and families in the Welcoming Session. I was asked to share why I chose Champlain College and my experience so far. Now I want to share that with you as well.
Before we get into that however, I should probably give you a little bit of a background about myself. Like I said, I was born and raised in Germany and moved to Colorado when I was 15. By the time I was a junior in High School most of my friends had very detailed plans of where they will study and what they will study, while I was more along the lines of asking myself: what if the hokypoky is what it’s all about? My answer was to take a gap year in New Zealand where I worked at the Department of Conservation and had a chance to narrow down what I wanted to do with the coming years.
For me, it was a matter of finding the right kind of higher education. While I initially wanted to go to a large state university, my mother asked me to a least consider a smaller college. And so, at a college fair at my high school in Colorado I met Nicole Lentine at the Champlain College booth. She explained to me the upside-down curriculum, the International Business program and the study abroad opportunities – I was intrigued. By the time I visited the campus during the accepted student day and had the chance to talk to the business professors and students who have studies abroad – I was sold.
Now as a senior, I can say that my college experience has been very unique. In my first year here I was able to score a great work study position at Admissions as a Student Ambassador. The position showed me how being energetic and enthusiastic, combined with the willingness to learn something new can be very successful: by fall semester my second year I was tour trainer, by spring semester Lead Student Ambassador. That same year I also was selected to be a peer advisor, where I helped incoming students acclimate to college life and the Burlington community. I was also part of the Financial Sophistication Track of LEAD, where I facilitated workshops of understanding credit and the Career Track, where I helped with workshops on how to write a resume and ace a job interview. Overall, I can’t even begin to describe how my co-workers and Champlain as a community helped me create a home away from home.
Like I said, one of my main reasons I came to Champlain was the study abroad opportunities and to travel. I had this idea to visit one new country every year, so that I will have seen as many countries as my age. My first semester here at Champlain College I was 19 and had traveled to 19 countries. Now I’m 23 and I have visited 29 countries.
How did I do that? I took every opportunity I could. I participated in a summer internship with the Stiller School of Business, sponsored by the Freeman Foundation to live in Shanghai, China. For three months I got to work at an international school as the admissions intern and explore north-eastern China. After a week traveling around Japan, I went directly to Barcelona, Spain for the Fall Semester to attend a third party study abroad program. Every other weekend that semester, I was traveling around Europe. I continued my abroad experience by spending the Spring Semester in Dublin, Ireland at Champlain’s Campus. There I also interned at the World Trade Centre Dublin for three months. After my semester in Dublin, I had the opportunity to attend the Thunderbird School of Global Management, an international graduate school in Arizona, to start collecting graduate level credits and earn the Certificate of Advanced Global Studies. I returned this January after 20 months abroad to finish my last semester here in Burlington, Vermont.
I’m facing graduation now and even though I still sometimes think about the hokypoky, I have decide to return to Europe for graduate school and earn a Master Degree in Global Management.
I can honestly say that I could not have had such an experience without the supportive community here. And I hope that whoever is interested in Champlain will take the time to explore the vast opportunities available to you at Champlain College.
Julia C. Haass 