“It completely changed my perspective on life:” How studying abroad changed two MRU students’ lives

By James Windler, Contributor

In 2020, Mackenzie Mason was gearing up for one of the several field schools Mount Royal University (MRU) has to offer. Field schools are short term academic programs that take place aboard in order to offer students an out-of-classroom and hands-on experience.

Mason, who had chosen to partake in the India field school, couldn’t contain her excitement. She had saved up money for months, got her shots, and had all her paperwork in order.

Then something happened that no one saw coming—the world shut down.

On March 22, 2020, India followed the growing number of countries that put varying restrictions on flights in and out of the country. Any flight that wasn’t carrying goods for trade, or essential goods and supplies were suspended.

Mason’s dream of studying in India was dashed as all Spring field schools at MRU were canceled.

Over the next two years, Mason’s urge to travel did not subside. With her third year being fully online and her fourth year being uncertain, Mason decided to take a year off and go backpacking in Europe.

Mason had a life-changing time in Europe and upon returning to Canada she wanted to find any possible way to continue travelling the world. After doing a bit of research she stumbled upon the International Education’s exchange program at MRU.

“Europe was such an amazing time so I was like ‘Wow how can I travel as much as I can,” said Mason.

“When I came back to MRU, and I saw the international education program, I was like, ‘Where can I go, what’s open because it was quite last minute when I decided to look into the program,” said Mason. “Australia was super competitive to go through, but there were still quite a few places within Europe.”

Mason was interested in Vienna, but all the slots were filled, eventually, she was able to secure a spot in the 2023 Munich exchange. After three years, Mason could see her dream of studying abroad come true.

Unforgettable experience

While the COVID-19 pandemic ended up leading to the cancellation of Mason’s India field school, Jillian Zack, who is a second-year student at MRU was able to go to the Peru field school this past spring with COVID-19 restrictions lifted.

Zack’s interest in studying abroad differed from Mason’s as her interest was piqued by having the chance to immerse herself in another country’s culture.

“The learning experience was fantastic,” said Zack.

“I think [field schools] are a lot more impactful than regular in-person learning,” she said. “If you get the chance to travel somewhere and get that real in-person cultural experience, it changes your perspective on a lot of things, and it was just very eye-opening.”

The Peru field school wasn’t all smooth sailing for Zack, as the long travel days, accommodation mix-ups, and flu made for a bumpy start to the trip.

The first five days were quite tough for Zack, but after getting things smoothed out, the rest of the experience was fantastic. She credited her classmates for making her feel comfortable throughout the trip and as time went on, everyone started to form close bonds.

“Throughout the whole month we all became super close; I wasn’t expecting to make as wonderful friends as I did,” said Zack.

“That’s the benefit of something like this, meeting all these wonderful people with different perspectives and ideas, we all took something different out of the trip as we all have come in with different identities and different backgrounds.”

Mason mirrored Zack’s sentiment on the importance of the bonds she made while studying abroad.

“I would definitely emphasize the connectedness of the whole situation, the friendships you make are so important,” said Mason.

“I made the best of friends on that trip, we would organize our day based on when the sun would set so that we could be somewhere to just appreciate the sun setting,” she said. “It’s so pure, traveling made me grateful for the littlest of things and I think that’s really why everyone should try to experience that.”

MRU offers a ton of different options for students to go abroad. Whether that be a field school, like Zack, an outbound exchange like Mason, or work experience completing a work term abroad.

Mason mentioned how supportive MRU was during the process. In her case, the tuition was the same to study in Munich as it would’ve been at MRU. She also gave a shout-out to SAMRU for providing grants for her trip.

If you’re interested in working or studying abroad head over to International Education opportunities on MRU’s website.