ShaDonna Barnes
ShaDonna Barnes, a senior from Milwaukee, Wisconsin majoring in Industrial Technology recently participated in the International Industrial/Academic Leadership Experience in Taiwan faculty-led travel course through the CALS Study Abroad Office. This particular 3-week travel course allows students to stay on the campus of Chung Yuan Christian University (CYCU) in Taiwan. While there, students participate in multi-national and multi-disciplinary team projects, attend lectures, field trips and cultural activities with other students from all over the world. ShaDonna said, “This particular program allowed me to understand that although the other students come from different cultures, religions, social classes and speak different languages, we are all the same; we just come from different places around the world.” Although there were language barriers when working with students from different countries, ShaDonna appreciated how everyone was able to build upon each other’s different strengths to complete projects and better understand different learning objectives and methods. On a professional level, ShaDonna enjoyed being able to visit different technology industries in Taiwan as they created robots and compare their resources to those used in the United States. ShaDonna would tell any student that is considering to study abroad to, “be open to learning new things, meeting new people and realize that networking is key in any major.”