I cannot believe I am writing about our LAST IBEA Weekend! Every semester, we have one designated weekend when our cohort gets away from school, assignments, and everything else to spend time together. In Germany, we went to the Black Forest. In the U.S., we went to North Myrtle Beach. In Singapore, we traveled to Besar Island in Johor, Malaysia. And for our fourth and final IBEA Weekend, we traveled to Resende, Brazil! This semester, we only have one Brazilian student in our

An Overnight Flight and a Smooth Arrival I officially made it to Rio de Janeiro! After my trip to Alabama to visit family before flying here, my mom and a family friend dropped me off at the Atlanta airport. I flew directly from Atlanta to Rio overnight. My flight wasn’t until 11:40 p.m., and I got dropped off around 8:00, so I had plenty of time to read and mentally prepare for everything ahead of me. Also, remember how I’m injured and have two walking boots!? Well...I still

Wow, what an absolutely amazing semester! Somehow, every semester of IBEA just keeps getting better. If you had asked me last fall which semester I thought would be my favorite, I would have told you there was no way anything could beat the U.S. semester. I got to live at home with my family, spend time with my friends from USC, and be surrounded by all of my international friends. It truly felt like the best of all worlds. But after spending this semester in Singapore, I tak

HAPPY MID-AUTUMN FESTIVAL! It has now been about four weeks since I arrived here in Hong Kong, where I will study literature and anthropology at the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) for the duration of my sophomore year. I am not exaggerating when I say that the last month has been an absolute whirlwind of events. However, I am very thankful that I had three full weeks to adjust before going out to experience some of Hong Kong’s most iconic Mid-Autumn Festival events. D

One of the most insane things I did this semester was complete not one, but two crazy challenges. I walked around Singapore in three days and biked around Singapore in one night. Here's the story. The Singapore Walk Before I even stepped foot in Singapore, one of the guys in my cohort challenged me to complete a three-day walk around Singapore. One of his friends had studied abroad there previously, created the challenge, and even made a YouTube video about it. Ever since the

One of the biggest takeaways from this semester was that I found so much more clarity about my interests and future career aspirations. Like I've mentioned in previous blogs, every semester in the IBEA program includes an international consulting project. This semester, I genuinely loved my project and all of my classes. I left Singapore feeling more confident than ever about what kinds of work excite me and where I could see myself in the future. I attended ESSEC Business Sc

Well...I know my study abroad insurance works! Today's blog is all about my crazy hospital visits and injuries this semester. Safe to say I definitely got my money's worth out of my study abroad insurance. Number One: I Stepped on Glass in Australia and Had It Surgically Removed in Singapore Here's the story. Before flying to Singapore to start my semester abroad, I spent a week in Australia visiting one of my friends. One morning, I walked to Surfers Paradise Beach to watch

Hi everyone! In this blog, I’ll be talking about the rainy season in Japan (and hydrangea season)! Hydrangeas at Takahata Fudoson The rainy season (梅雨) in Tokyo began on June 7 and typically lasts until around mid-July. While it doesn’t rain every day, rainy weather becomes a regular part of daily life during this time. As someone who isn’t a fan of rain or humidity, I can’t say I was excited for the rainy season. However, it also happens to be hydrangea season! Tokyo has ple

I’ve successfully finished my semester abroad and have returned to the United States. I cannot believe I can say I have actually traveled around the entire world (and am the first in my family to ever do it)! Quick recap: From my hometown, Charleston, West Virginia, I headed west to Sydney, Australia for my first six-week block. Next, I continued west to Rome and Paris for my last two blocks. After making a quick stop in London to visit my family there, I made my way back acr

Made it to Singapore! (Let’s ignore the fact that I’m writing this on June 19, 2026, after I’ve already finished the semester and returned home. I really need to be better about blogging during the semester, but either way, it’s been so cool to reflect on my time abroad and all the things I did and learned.) Ever since I got back to the U.S., people have been asking me what my favorite thing about my semester in Singapore was. I always reply, "I just loved my routine while I

IBEA Weekend 3/4! Every semester, we have a designated IBEA weekend. The previous ones have been to the Black Forest in Germany and North Myrtle Beach in the U.S. This semester, the ESSEC students organized an epic weekend trip to Pulau Besar Island in Malaysia. The experience was so amazing that I still have a hard time understanding how they secured such an incredible vacation spot for us. It literally felt like we had an entire island and resort to ourselves. That's why we

Singapore is conveniently just a ferry ride away from Indonesia, so one weekend in April, one of my roommates and I decided to take a little getaway to Bintan, Indonesia! After our Entrepreneurial Marketing class, we headed to the ferry terminal and took the hour and a half ferry over to Bintan. We stayed at this little beachfront resort called Ten Rooms (which literally has ten rooms, five upstairs and five downstairs that are all facing the beach). There was a little seatin

A Week in Japan! From April 18th-25th, six of my friends and I traveled from Tokyo to Mt. Fuji to Nara to Kyoto to Osaka and back to Tokyo. It was an absolutely incredible trip, and I know it's one I'll never forget. Since there are so many places to travel throughout Southeast Asia, it was honestly hard to decide where to go for spring break because there were endless options. It's actually kind of a funny story about how we ended up choosing Japan. One of my friends was sup

Hello! My name is Valentina Scarpitta, I am a junior majoring in Global Studies and minoring in Mass Communications. I am taking a month-long USC faculty-led program worth six credits in International Multimedia courses to complete my minor in Madrid! My program is led by two professors from the College of Information and Communications, who have assigned us groups to conduct a multimedia cultural research project in Madrid. My group is going to be doing research on the marke

Hi everyone! In this blog, I’ll be sharing a bit about my experience interning in Japan during my study abroad semester. For the past two months, I interned at Intralink, a business development consultancy that also serves as the South Carolina Department of Commerce’s representative in Japan. As a University of South Carolina student, I worked exclusively on projects related to South Carolina-Japan business relations, making it a particularly meaningful experience. I think i

Throughout my total of four months abroad, I have been on a variety of solo trips. These have varied from little day trips, full weekends, and even just hanging out for a few hours waiting for friends to arrive in the new country. It's definitely been a whole new experience, but I wanted to make this post to ease some nerves, give some advice, and just general information on what it's like solo traveling! I originally decided to begin solo traveling because all of my friends

Wow! Time flies as I am now nearing the end of February and more than halfway through my semester abroad! Due to the shorter term, I’ve been trying to keep busy and ensure Im continuing to explore new things. I feel like after the first few weeks its easy to get comfortable and in the grove; however I’ve been trying to keep branching out and avoid continuing to go to the same spots and places, no matter how good they are. I think the biggest thing I learned during my last ter

Hi everyone! Today, I’ll be talking about the time I spent in Fukuoka during Golden Week. Golden Week is a series of national holidays in Japan, so we ended up getting almost an entire week off from school. To take advantage of the break, a few friends and I decided to head south to Fukuoka! Popular destinations like Tokyo, Osaka, and Kyoto become incredibly crowded during Golden Week, so if you ever find yourself in Japan around this time, I’d definitely recommend visiting s

Hello again! It’s been three months since I first arrived in Sydney and in that time, I’ve explored all over the city, met so many people, and embraced some amazing solo adventures. I wanted to share my top 5 favorite memories from my time here so far. Some are more intimate moments while others are absolute must-dos for your bucket list. The Phantom of the Opera Under the Stars This is probably my favorite memory from Sydney so far. The Phantom of the Opera is one of my favo

It is the last week of my semester abroad! It is surreal how time has flown by. In my block program, I have been blessed to spend 6 weeks each in Sydney, Rome, and am in week 6 in Paris now! I think this type of program has definitely made time go by faster, rather than if I stayed in one city, but I would not change it for anything. There is no other way I could have experienced 3 very distinct cultures, made friends from all over the world, and gotten to live out my dream i