On Saturday, December 8, 2019, ETA Maria Isabel “Isa” Nieves Bosch attended Global Challenge Festival, an event organized by Sebelas Maret University to inform and motivate students to study abroad. Isa was invited as a guest speaker and she shared her experience studying abroad in Europe, going to college in the United States, and the challenges of living in a different place such as Indonesia.

The ETA opened her presentation introducing her home, Puerto Rico, and how different it is from her college in upstate New York. She explained that it was easy to apply to college in the United States because it is a US territory; Puerto Ricans are US citizens and she was not an international student. Then, she talked about Skidmore College, where she studied for four years, attained two majors, and studied two semesters abroad in London and Madrid. Although these two European cities have a very similar culture to that of the US, she learned how to navigate her way around a city, how the academic systems differed and learned to be independent in new spaces.

Lastly, she shared some of the challenges of studying in the United States and what helped her overcome these challenges. Some of these struggles were present when she moved to Indonesia, but Isa mentioned that building relationships and finding a routine helped her. She emphasized that, at the end of the day, her experiences abroad were mostly about people and friendships.

Maria Isabel “Isa” Nieves is currently teaching at SMKN 7 Surakarta, Central Java.