Help Fund Tyler's Trip to Barcelona

Hi, my name is Tyler! I am an undergraduate student at Jacksonville University studying Sustainability, Geography, and Environmental Planning with a minor in Geographic Information Systems and Spanish. This summer 2024 I was fortunate enough to be accepted by my university and study abroad program (Barcelona SAE) to travel to Spain. For 2 months, from June-July, I'll be doing an internship in Sustainability and Geography. It has been a dream of mine to travel to Barcelona for years. Going to Barcelona for an internship would mean the world to me. I have always loved learning Spanish as a language and its rich culture as I've been taking Spanish classes since I was in kindergarten. I would use the money I raised to pay for my trip and expenses while abroad.

After my trip to Spain this summer, I plan to create a mentorship program for students of color and other minorities on campus who wish to study abroad. From personal experience, one of the driving factors in why I’ve been discouraged to study abroad in the past has been my fear of experiencing racism, or discrimination in an unknown environment and not knowing how to navigate that situation if it were to occur. So, I think it is important that students with the same concerns have a mentorship network made up of students alike who have studied abroad and can help prepare them for what they can expect once they get into their prospective country. I plan to incorporate various elements to engage students, reach out to the presidents of Black Student Union and work to encourage students to explore study abroad possibilities and understand the transformative potential of international experiences. I want to challenge misconceptions, break barriers, and inspire a diverse range of students to consider studying abroad while providing them a safety network to ease anxieties about going abroad. Drawing from my own experiences abroad, I want to share personal narratives, anecdotes, and cultural insights to illustrate the impact of studying in a foreign country. By weaving my journey into the project, I plan to offer tangible examples of how exposure to different cultures enriched my perspectives, fostered empathy, and broadened my horizons to social, cultural, and environmental factors. My real-life experience will serve as a steppingstone to my mentorship program to inspire others to do the same. I specifically chose to focus on the Black Student Union on campus due to the historical underrepresentation in study abroad programs and my personal experience as a black woman. By directly working with BSU, my project aims to give access to the information and resources necessary to pursue international opportunities that they may not know about and provide a step-by-step guide on how to successfully navigate studying abroad as a person of color or another underrepresented group. By tailoring my outreach, I hope to make study abroad

more accessible and relevant to their experiences.