CAPA WORLD

Will you represent your study abroad city as one of our official CAPA bloggers or vloggers during your Study Abroad Program?

Each term, we select a team of student bloggers and vloggers to share their study abroad experiences on the CAPA World blog. Each student on our team of storytellers will receive a grant of up to $450 along with up to $100 as an explorer fund to help you create awesome content for the CAPA World blog.  You can choose to produce blogs, vlogs, or Instagram TV vlogs!

Besides helping finance their adventures, previous CAPA bloggers and vloggers have loved the experience for a bunch of different reasons. Without further ado, here are 9 reasons to become a CAPA blogger or vlogger:

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Meet your new study abroad routine: saving money and the planet. In this week's post, Kara gives 7 tips for us to do our part and be environmentally-friendly while abroad (or at home). From using reusable shopping bags to air-drying laundry, see how you can reduce your environmental impact and save some cash while studying abroad.

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Budgeting before and during your study abroad experience can ease your worries when you're living in a global city. In this week's post, Sarah shares her comprehensive guide with 10 ideas on how you can plan ahead, build up savings, and maintain a budget while studying abroad in London. The last thing you want to do is worry! Check out some of Sarah's own experiences and lessons. 

(Original illustrations by Sarah Mai)

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It can be easy to lose track of your spending while abroad! In this week's post, Imani sheds light on her student budget and how she manages her money monthly. She looks at how she's allocated funds for travel, food, souvenirs, and activities in Shanghai, and what is covered by your CAPA program costs.

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In Barcelona, at the time of writing, $10 USD buys you €8.76. If you’re on a tight student budget while you’re studying abroad, know that you can still have a great time in the city! We’ve rounded up 10 fun and/or useful experiences or things that this amount will buy. We will save the freebies for another post, so stay tuned for those.

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At CAPA, we seek to foster increased student diversity and to provide all participants with the opportunity to explore, challenge and redefine their identities in distinct ways. Launched in Spring 2017, the Diversity Advocates Program (DAP) is an extension of this philosophy and provides resources for advocates to pursue diversity initiatives of their own within their global cities.

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If you're wondering how to finance your study abroad to London and live in this global city on a budget, here's a list of practical tips to get you going! Genevieve shares what worked for her from experience—from looking for scholarships to finding cost-effective strategies that work best for you.

Live in a different country. Participate in a career furthering internship in a new culture. Be able to travel to new places on the weekends. These make up the shiny side of study abroad. While parts of this image of study abroad are true, this is not the whole picture. The whole picture includes graphic depictions of the days where you have a cold and have used up a whole pack of Kleenex overnight. It includes the day when you are so tired from the week before that you can barely drag yourself from bed on Monday morning. Where you are on the tube for at least an hour and a half each day, jammed between a sweaty man and a really loud tourist group. The real picture of study abroad is not always pretty, and it definitely is not for everyone. It also includes something that most people don’t want to consider: money.

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There's no doubt that studying abroad is the experience of a lifetime, but it is also one that needs careful planning, especially as it relates to finances. Studying abroad is possible even if money is an issue for you, but you need to give yourself enough time to save and apply for grants and scholarships.

There's really no magic short cut and students tend to fund their programs through a combination of efforts, but we hope these tips will give you some guidance. 

1. GET A JOB ON OR OFF CAMPUS. There's no question that the best best way to save money is to make more than you spend, so send out your resume and ensure you have an income if you're serious about going abroad. If you're already employed, find out if it's possible to increase your hours slightly. For motivation, think of every $10 you make as another meal abroad.

"I saved a decent amount of money before I came to Dublin by working all the way up to the day before I left," said CAPA alumna Kaylen Nese. 

CAPA Sydney alumna Sierra Glasscock had been saving to study abroad since she was 16-years-old. "I had a part time job that helped with my expenses and plane ticket," she said. "I was very blessed that my parents paid for the school side of the program and my accommodation. My parents said as long as I had good grades through college, they would help pay for me to study abroad."

To fund her semester in London, Kathryn Tenney took on more than one part time job. "Ultimately, I took out loans to pay for my time abroad, but I also worked (on campus and as a babysitter) to have a decent amount of pocket money," she said. 

David Kozhuk and Jacquelyn Jones, also CAPA London alumni, shared that they too worked to raise money toward the goal of studying abroad. David spent a summer focusing on his role at an investment bank in New York and Jacquelyn secured a position a local supermarket. 

"I heard countless times that a semester abroad costs about the same as a semester at your home institution, but for me it was double," said CAPA London alumna Cassie Naes. "The first thing that helped me fund my time abroad was working a part-time job at Kohl’s. Although I was making basic minimum wage, I saved for a year and by the time I left for London I had $4,000 saved." 

Photo: CAPA Sydney alumna Sierra Glasscock

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In this post, CAPA Alumna Ellie Telander shares some of her top tips for budgeting while studying abroad in London!

There’s no doubt that London is an expensive city, but it doesn’t have to be, so don’t let that scare you! There’s plenty of ways to make London an affordable place to live. I would know–I did it! With overwhelming amounts of incredible restaurants, historical places to visit and endless things to do, it can be intimidating as to how to budget your money while living in such a bustling city. This city is worth every pound you’ll spend, and I will show you how to spend those pounds wisely. Here are some tips and tricks to use during your time in London that will have your bank account thanking you.  

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Adulting (otherwise known as growing-up) is hard. Having your own responsibilities and making your own money can be an adjustment when you’re used to living at home and being taken care of. But there’s nothing like getting that first paycheck and knowing that all of your hard word amounted to something. You, and only you, just got paid!

Now that you’ve got that paycheck, what should you do with it? All that talk of saving for retirement so young can seem like it’s too far away to care about, but is it? The truth is that it’s never too early to start saving or learning the smart way to spend your hard-earned cash.

To help you out, the experts from CAPA's very own finance department have come up with some tips to keep you on track toward financial stardom. Following these steps will put you on the right path toward saving and spending money efficiently:

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