Friday, August 29, 2008 8:34 PM CDT
Mattoon student visits 15 countries while working toward master's degree
By DAWN SCHABBING, Features Writer
dschabbing@jg-tc.com
College life means different things to different people. And to Jenni Janssen of Mattoon, traveling to 15 different countries during an international exchange was simply par for the course.
The 24-year-old graduate student at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale spent almost a full year traveling and studying after being chosen to participate in an international business master’s degree program at Grenoble Ecole de Management. Grenoble is one of the leading business colleges in France.
The exchange meant that the weeklong spring break was in Italy, and the end of the school year was celebrated by visiting Greece for a week.
Janssen, daughter of Steve and Kim Janssen of Mattoon, said in each of her stops she stayed an average of three days, but some stays were longer. She opted to not use a guided tour.
“It felt great to navigate your own way through town and make it to your final destination,” she said.
She said sightseeing abroad could be a one-time chance, so she made it her mission to see as many places as possible.
Her top favorites were Santorini, Greece, where Janssen said the food is “amazing,” and the people were “great.”
She called Greece “breathtaking.”
“You’ve never seen scenery like you will in Santorini. And being there was very cheap.”
Janssen said the hotel tab was $15 a night and it cost $10 to rent a four-wheeler for 24 hours.
Another favorite place to visit was Rome, where she spent spring break.
“It just happened to be culture week, so everything was free when I was there,” she said. “I went to the Colosseum, the Vatican, the Vatican museum and much more, all for free.”
She and her friends also ventured out to Pompeii, near Naples, to see the partially buried Roman city that was covered by an eruption from the volcano Mount Vesuvius in 79 A.D.
While she didn’t go home during her exchange, her family was able to spend Christmas in Europe.
“My sister Brianna and both of my parents, came over to Europe. My sister stayed for a whole month and we went to Spain and the Netherlands together,” she said. “My parents came over for two weeks and the four of us went to Switzerland, Paris, and spent New Year’s in London.” Janssen also has another sister, Kati.
An SIU-C friend, Ben Mugnier, who is from Les Gets, France, was participating in a similar exchange. Janssen’s family and his family met over Christmas break at his hometown.
“I made many friends during my stay in Grenoble. My friends are from all over the world. Just a few countries where they live include Iceland, Columbia, Greece, Mexico, Sweden, India, China and Thailand,” Janssen said.
“Now, because of this experience, I can go anywhere in the world and have a friend to stay with.”
Janssen said there were many “amazing sites” throughout Europe. Another favorite stop was the Schonbrunn Palace in Vienna.
“Austria has the most amazing architecture, in my opinion, of any other country,” she said.
Another highlight was the Trive Fountain in Rome.
“I got a chance to throw my two coins into this fountain; one coin for a wish, and one coin to some day return to Rome,” she said.
And there’s a good chance she’ll plan future trips back to the area.
Now that she’s back in Carbondale working and preparing her thesis for a master’s degree in international business, Janssen stays in touch with her new friends through MSN Messenger, Skype and Facebook. The young people plan to have a reunion when they graduate in 2010.
Janssen brought back a photo album full of memories, new foreign language skills, new knowledge about cultures and material learned in classrooms.
“I believe what will help me the most in my career was not what I learned in a book in class or what the teachers taught us, but what I learned by working with peers from all over the world. We had a lot of teamwork and I had to work with many different individuals ... with different beliefs, backgrounds and work ethic,” she said.
“It was very trying at times to work under these conditions, but it is amazing to be given an assignment and be able to complete it with your teammates.”
Visiting several countries was possible because her class schedule in Grenoble was different each week. Some weeks the days were long, with class from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. But, some weeks there might be only one class the entire week.
“It was during those weeks when time allowed that I took full advantage of the opportunity to travel,” she said.
Learning to speak French was one of her first challenges.
“The language barrier was definitely an issue, especially in the beginning. I had never studied French before, only Spanish. So, this proved to be quite difficult,” Janssen said.
The locals in Grenoble were helpful, she said, and she started out taking an intensive French course the first week of her experience.
“Once school started I was required by the school to take a French class once a week to build on my French skills,” she said.
Soon she could converse with French-speaking people at restaurants, grocery stores, the bank and train station.
Janssen said once she’s completed the master’s in international business degree, she plans to find employment at an international corporation.
“If the chance arises, I would definitely take the opportunity to work abroad, and use my international skills that I have developed in this two-year program.”
Contact Dawn Schabbing at dschabbing@jg-tc.com or 238-6864.
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gsawiris wrote on May 3, 2009 5:31 AM:
Peter Williams
MLS Listings information. "