As Ricardo Estrada Davila was trying to figure out what to do when his class was suddenly canceled one day, an email about study abroad opportunities at Fresno State came through his phone.
The message unlocked a summer of memories for the senior history major from Visalia who befriended Japanese exchange students that his aunt once hosted in her home.
“I found it inspiring, just how brave someone could be to go somewhere where you don’t know the culture, you don’t know the language,” Davila said. “It kind of instilled that courage in me growing up, to try to put myself into these situations because, if other people could come over to another country and do all this personal growth, I could do that too.”
Despite feeling like study abroad was out of reach for someone like himself — a first-generation college student who faced housing insecurity in high school and who struggled financially — Davila made an appointment with the Study Abroad office at Fresno State to learn more. The least he could do was try, Davila said.
That meeting led Davila to study in Chiangmai, Thailand during spring 2023 and to participate in a faculty-led trip to Malaga, Spain that summer. He was one of 27 Fresno State students to study abroad for a semester and one of 275 students on a faculty-led trip during the 2022-23 academic year.
Study abroad is for all, said Marcela Magdaleno, the Study Abroad adviser who meets with students to discuss the possibilities. Students can use their specific financial aid package to study abroad with Fresno State’s partner universities or providers, she said, and there are programs in less expensive destinations like Latin America or Asia that students can participate in.
Now, there is more financial help ensuring that all students have an opportunity to travel. Through the Division of Continuing and Global Education at Fresno State, students who study abroad for a spring or fall semester can receive a minimum of $4,000 in aid, while those who study abroad in summer or winter can receive $2,500. In addition, there are a number of full or partial grants students can apply for.
Davila received two grants that covered his academic expenses for both trips. He continued to work and save money on his own, which also allowed him to travel to Singapore and Denmark.
Study abroad is considered a high-impact practice focused on academics, and it also gives students an experience of a lifetime that includes personal growth, independence and the opportunity to do more critical thinking, Magdaleno said.
“It opens a whole new whole world to them, especially for our first-generation students who have never been outside of the United States or even outside of California,” Magdaleno said. “Fresno State is providing them with a whole picture of what is the world, what is out there … we want to prepare students to function in a diverse society regardless of what is going to be their career goal. Our students are always going to be interacting with people of different minds, different cultures.”
Continue reading for more study abroad stories from Fresno State students:
Lillian Hammestrom
Study abroad has been on senior Lillian Hammestrom’s to-do list so she can deepen her understanding of the Spanish language. Hammestrom, from Clovis, is a double major in political science and Spanish, with a career goal of practicing immigration law.
She studied in Madrid, Spain during the spring 2023 semester through the California State University International Programs, or CSU IP, one of six different ways students can study abroad. The system-wide international program works with partner institutions in an exchange allowing students to study at their schools for the same tuition and fee cost as staying home. The class credits also transfer easily through this program.
Hammestrom’s classes were 100% in Spanish, making it challenging, she said, because she was used to Spanish from Latin America and Central America, which differs from the Spanish that is spoken in Spain.
“What I really enjoyed about Madrid is that it’s so walkable and accessible, so we went to a lot of places in Madrid and on the metro,” she said. “The program I was with was super tight knit … every other weekend [the program] took us to places all around Spain. We went to cities I had never heard of. It was just so cool. You got to see things you wouldn’t otherwise see. Spain has it all.”
Simranjeet Sekhon
Simranjeet Sekhon of Fresno is no stranger to international travel. Her dad left home in India at the age of 16 and hopped through different countries until his 30s. He instilled in her the bug to travel and explore. She’s been to India, Australia and different parts of Europe, including London.
The junior psychology major studied in Wales, United Kingdom through the California State University International Programs in spring 2023. She wanted a small-town feel, different from London, with the countryside and coastline. It helped that English was the primary language, she said.
Sekhon said studying abroad helped her learn about herself.
“I learned that I was more resilient than I gave myself credit for, since I was able to adapt to more situations than I thought possible,” she said. “For example, when we were stranded in a small town in Wales with no buses or public transport, I was able to keep a calm demeanor and figure out a solution. I learned to trust myself more.”
While studying abroad, Sekhon traveled to Hamburg, Germany with some of her closest friends to see one of her favorite bands play and they visited a castle in Schwerin where it snowed.
“I’ve grown up in Fresno, California my whole life so to experience snow like that was beautiful,” Sekhon said. “Some of the people on that trip became my closest friends and we went on to have multiple trips together.”
Theodore Phan
Study abroad was a life-changing experience for junior graphics design major Theodore Phan who learned about the opportunity to study abroad by watching a drama on YouTube.
The character in the drama talked about studying abroad and “I was like, oh you can do that?” said Phan, who is from Clovis. He spent the fall 2022 semester in Japan when he decided that he needed to restart his life after sitting home every day during the COVID pandemic.
He studied through the University Studies Abroad Consortium, also known as USAC, in Nishinomiya, Japan. The experience of living abroad made Phan more independent and responsible since he had to pay his own bills and buy his own groceries, he said.
And the experience drove him out of his comfort zone, leading him to organize activities or nights out for fun with friends, something he normally would not do. He smiles and laughs as he talks about how he and a friend walked from Osaka, in the middle of Japan, to Kumamoto on the western end. It took them nine days.
“In Japan, walking is a big culture there, and we just walked everywhere, and I tried to see as far as I could go. I saw everything. I’ve been pretty much everywhere in Japan except Okinawa,” Phan said. “Walking was pretty life changing for me. When I arrived in Japan, I was a lot bigger and it helped me lose a lot of weight. I lost 50 pounds.”
