Roxy Ong

Hi there everyone! My name is Roxy and I'm a 4th year International Studies-Linguistics Major with a minor in Business at ERC. I studied abroad for a full academic year in Colombia in two different cities: Barranquilla and Medellin. I always wanted to go to a Spanish-speaking country and wanted to go to a place that I had zero prior knowledge about and was filled with excitement and adventure, so I decided that Colombia was the place for me. And I'm SO glad I stuck with my decision. It truly was such an incredible experience where I got to meet amazing new friends, learn about a new culture, and immerse myself in a foreign language and improve my Spanish ten-fold while I was there.

I was definitely very nervous before my trip, and had lots of questions about my decisions such as: what will it be like as an Asian-American in a non-touristic city like Barranquilla? Will I be able to get by with my level of Spanish? Will I have trouble making friends? But all of those doubts and worries soon washed away as I was taken in by the kindest host family and fell in love with the country. I have made so many profound friendships and connections since then, and still keep incredibly close contact with all of them, especially my host family who now call me their 'prima adoptiva' or 'adopted cousin'. I would love to share more about my experience with anyone interested in language learning opportunities, less conventional study abroad programs like mine, or even anyone who's interested in listening to juicy study-abroad stories like how I met my boyfriend or when I ate live bugs in the Amazon Jungle!