This semester, three of our brothers within the chapter chose to go study abroad, which consists of Niku Shahbazi, Ryan Tighe, and myself. Each of us went through different experiences on our trip and grew within our own way, but I would like to share my story of studying abroad.

I chose to study in Lugano on the lakes of southern Switzerland where I was a part of the Linking Lives program that focused on making social change through marketing. I took marketing classes that helped my group work on a grant project that could potentially be funded. Our grant proposal consisted of a fully self-sufficient water tower that could be placed in a rural African community like Ruli, Rwanda. The tower is essentially just a 15 foot cement tower with 12 water spouts and is powered by solar panels to draw the water and clean it. The water tower also has carbon credit ability to be able to fund itself over long periods of time.

Outside of schoolwork, my program allowed us to travel freely on the weekends and during the three 10 day breaks given throughout the semester. The first two of my weekend trips included Florence, Italy and Paris, France. There was lots of sightseeing and art in both cities. The first 10-day break included London, England, Edinburgh, Scotland, and finally Dublin, Ireland. The food was amazing, but I also got to see two famous cliffs (Cliffs of Moher and White Cliffs of Dover), a football game in Chelsea, and lots of castles. The next two weekends I traveled to Venice, Italy for Carnivale and Vienna, Austria. Carnivale was essentially a European Mardi Gras and Vienna was filled with beautiful architecture and history everywhere you looked. My second 10-day trip started in Barcelona, Spain and led to Seville. Spain quickly became one of my favorite places mainly because of the enriching culture. I ended this week back in London for a trip with my girlfriend, which was really nice. The last two weekend trips were to Munich, Germany and to Zermatt, Switzerland. Plenty of delicious beverages were enjoyed in Germany and the best skiing trip of my life took place in Zermatt. My last break was spent in Rwanda for 16 days doing service learning. I helped kids learn a little bit of English in school, worked on constructing a house, and aided in painting the classrooms. My experience in Rwanda was the peak of my trip as the culture and people were so welcoming. The children that I encountered taught me so much more than what I taught them.

In total, I visited 10 different countries over a span of 100 days. I learned how life can be lived in so many different ways and that people can be extremely happy living a very simple life. I realized that we become so fixated on what we have or what we want in the United States. Overall, my biggest takeaways from this experience are to live in the moment, stay off the phone as much as possible, and be grateful for what you have!