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The Career Benefits of Studying Away

As graduation approaches, NYU students who are preparing to enter the workforce meet with recruiters to discuss their academic achievements, internship experiences, and extracurricular activities. Another thing recruiters are sure to ask them about: their study away experience.

According to Jonathan Martinez, assistant director of global academic planning at the Wasserman Center for Career Development, students develop an invaluable skill set when they study abroad.

A seated woman turning to look at a colleague

An NYU Washington, DC, student talks to a coworker at their internship at the Mexican embassy.

They learn how to connect with different people, adapt to new environments, and solve difficult problems. They acquire non-English language skills, develop a more nuanced understanding of the world, and transform into culturally sensitive adults. With these abilities, NYU students tend to emerge as top candidates in the workforce.

“Many students have told us their study away skills and experiences have been critical in professional settings,” says Martinez. “Our study away administrators and Wasserman coaches also coach students on how to translate their study abroad experiences into vivid examples that showcase their adaptability, openness to new experiences, ability to work independently, and facility for cross-cultural dialogue.”

The Role of Wasserman in the Global Career Experience

Every semester, Wasserman hosts a career week to provide students with global professional development opportunities, whether they’re interested in internships or postgraduation careers.

This past spring, the Global Career Week was virtual and featured an array of events including a workshop on personal branding, a discussion on the global job search, and a session on volunteering with the Peace Corps. Students heading abroad for a semester, year, or summer have the unique chance to seek out internships that align with their interests and professional goals while gaining global experience, and, regardless of their destination, students can work with Wasserman to find the right opportunity. If students want to head abroad for work after graduating, the Wasserman team can help them

  • secure an international work permit
  • obtain or renew their passport
  • find a place to live
  • connect with a career coach
  • find a country-specific job or internship
  • network with alumni
A student and an adviser seated at a table

Students can consult Wasserman career coaches to learn how to leverage their global study experience.

Study Abroad Resources from the Office of Global Programs

Much like the Wasserman Center for Career Development, NYU’s Office of Global Programs has a range of resources students can use to make the study abroad experience more accessible.

“The Office of Global Programs is committed to breaking down any perceived or actual barriers students may face when submitting interest for study abroad,” says Martinez. “Providing extra funding for students is one thing we do because a financial burden holding students back from studying away is the last thing we want to happen. All students are eligible for the Global Pathways Scholarship, and, in some cases, students can use funding for up-front costs like plane tickets. We also offer many cohort-based programs like the Study Away Internships in which enrolled students are guaranteed an internship!”

Written by Samantha Jamison

Staff Spotlight: Edan Raviv, Assistant Director of Academics, NYU Tel Aviv

Portrait of Edan Raviv

Edan Raviv

Spending a semester in Tel Aviv, Israel, provides “a little bit of everything,” says Edan Raviv, assistant director of academics at NYU Tel Aviv. “There’s challenging courses, amazing networking opportunities, and a unique culture and society. It’s a more off-the-beaten-path experience for NYU students.”

Staff members like Raviv help students navigate the excitement and complexity of Tel Aviv from day one. The program includes an intensive weeklong orientation, with workshops on acclimatization, political diversity, basic Hebrew, and more. Guest lecturers, including Israeli diplomats, artists, and academics, teach students about Israel’s rich history and culture. A highlight for many students, says Raviv, is a visit to the Yitzhak Rabin Center, a famed museum and education institute.

Born to Israeli parents and raised in California, Raviv went to college at UC Santa Barbara, then earned his MA in Politics from NYU (2008), and later moved to Israel to pursue a PhD at Tel Aviv University. When he heard about the assistant director role at NYU Tel Aviv, he found it to be “an amazing fit,” combining his bicultural identity, background in academia, and administrative skills. He’s been in the role since fall 2016, supporting participants “to grow as students and as citizens.”

Throughout the semester, students receive ongoing personal support and myriad academic opportunities. For those interested in studying innovation, the program offers a generous grant. Students connect with staff members and one another through a weekly newsletter, an active Facebook group, and frequent WhatsApp chats. Off-campus, Tel Aviv offers students internships at burgeoning start-ups, prominent human rights organizations, and renowned museums.

A professor lectures a class of students

Raviv leads the Religion, Politics and the State in Comparative Perspective course.

In addition to participating in internships and cultural activities, students at NYU Tel Aviv have access to a world-class roster of professors as they learn about the history and politics of the region. And thanks to the program’s smaller scale, adds Raviv, students can connect with staff on an individual level. “My favorite part of the job is interacting with students from all over the world,” he says. “Knowledge, insight, and innovation can come from anywhere, regardless of age, previous knowledge, or background. Over the course of each semester, the students here learn so much, but I feel like I learn just as much, too.”

“The best part about NYU Tel Aviv is the diversity of experiences and perspectives,” affirms Raviv. “Students who want to grow—not just academically, but personally, socially, culturally, and professionally—will be very satisfied here.”

Modern Dissent in Prague

In the late 1980s, revolution was stirring in Communist Czechoslovakia, and Jan Urban was at the center of it. While reporting for Radio Free Europe and the BBC, he was also secretly working with underground newspapers and leading a fledgling dissident network called the Eastern European Information Agency. His efforts helped bring the country to the 1989 Velvet Revolution, a nonviolent uprising that toppled the Communist regime and brought democracy to his homeland. Because of his pivotal role in the revolution, Urban became the leader of the Civic Forum, a political, anti-communist movement he helped found.

Jan Urban gesticulates to his class

Professor Jan Urban giving a lecture

In the first free elections in June 1990, the public turned its attention to Urban as a natural choice for prime minister, but he declined. The reason? He says, “I was too good at giving speeches and mobilizing crowds. It was frightening to have such power, and I gladly gave it up.”

Teaching from Personal Experience

Urban turned away from politics and spent several years as a war journalist in the former Yugoslavia and Iraq. He began teaching courses about political dissent and civil disobedience at the Czech Republic’s Charles University. At NYU Prague, too, he teaches its most popular course, Modern Dissent in Central Europe: The Art of Defeat. In the classroom Urban uses his personal history as a case study.

Students, seated in desks, listening to Professor Urban

NYU Prague students in the Modern Dissent in Central Europe course

He knows it’s far more compelling to experience a personal account of what happened than to read about it in a textbook. His goal is to help students understand how civil disobedience led to positive changes for the people of the Czech Republic—and what it can also do for movements like Black Lives Matter and Occupy Wall Street.

“To act outside of what is mainstream and fashionable is more important today than ever before, and political dissent is a tool we can use to dismantle ideas that no longer work. Sometimes it’s our civic responsibility to be different.”  —Jan Urban

Students Explore Obedience and Resistance

In class discussions students work through topics like obedience and dissent, the media and propaganda, and government and civic responsibility. Urban challenges them to think by being the dissenters in the room. “Young people often say what they’ve been taught without questioning it deeply, so it’s necessary to provoke them, expose their prejudices, and destroy their ready-made conclusions,” he says. Though he makes his students uncomfortable at times, he also broadens their thinking. “Television has changed our lives and democracies into entertainment and emotional games,” Urban says.

Repurposed from NYU Global Notebook