On a sunny Saturday afternoon in September, dozens of Princeton University students gathered at Butler and Whitman Colleges. The day, which was filled with performances, discussions, exhibitions and plenty of food, was hosted by Princeton's Learning Across Borders (LABs), a campus initiative that allows students to share their international experiences with their Princeton peers.
The event, offered for the first time this year, gave students a venue to reflect on their journeys, and to document and display them in a way that was not only meaningful to them, but potentially inspiring to future travelers.
Over the last decade, the University has increased efforts to give students the skills, knowledge and empathy to lead in a globalized world through academics, service and internships. More than half of the undergraduate students at Princeton engage in a meaningful international experience before graduation, according to the LABs website.
Senior Corrie Kavanaugh, a civil and environmental engineering major, shared her perspective on volunteering with Engineers Without Borders-Princeton in Peru.
"I come from a place that's very homogenous … and being able to meet people from a completely different culture was something that I had not really experienced before," Kavanaugh said during the LABs event. "There's a whole world of thousands of cultures and millions of different people with different ideas and ways of life. … It shows me that I have a responsibility going forward to keep using this education and keep using these experiences to help other people and to make a difference."
Said Kavanaugh, "I know that whatever career I want to be in is going to be something that continues to make that positive change in our society and in the lives of other people."
For more information about having a meaningful international experience, visit the Learning Across Borders website. Visit the International Princeton website to read more about opportunities abroad.
