A glimpse in the life and understanding of the world of the young expatriate, or commonly known as "expat." For those in their 30s and under, young expats can be found across all parts of the world and have their own intentions and motivations for going abroad. Nevertheless, their experience abroad definitely helps them understand not just more about the world but also more about themselves. Presented by Young American Expat - April 2018. Watch below or click here. ​

Originally published on The PIE News in July 2017

Originally published on Young American Expat in 2017

Right after the run and the hostel´s huge breakfast spread, I went to get my hair done in a brief 30 minutes at the same place the bride (and probably everyone else, since the town is small!) got theirs done. The breakfast was important because Spanish weddings usually have the ceremony or the mass, followed by a long cocktail hour before dinner, so you can´t go into it on an empty stomach!
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The wedding ceremony was Catholic and took place in the gorgeous Cathedral of Siguenza. The Bride had a spectacular winter cape that looked like something (classier) from the movie Frozen. In Spain, rather than bridesmaids and groomsmen, they have testigos (witnesses), usually only a couple, to sign that they bore witness to the union. However, Almu and Nacho are a fun and inclusive sort and they had quite a few testigos on each side. My husband Daniel and I were invited to be witnesses among several others, and Daniel had to rent coattails in order to be properly formal for the altar! I made sure to wear gloves and a wrap to also be properly dressed. ​

More to come, but in the meantime, practice your 12 hour straight drinking and eating skills if you are planning on attending a Spanish wedding!

​-Colleen

Originally written for The PIE News September 2017

One sector that normally isn’t in the spotlight with respect to international trade is international education, writes Richie Santosdiaz, an expert in economic development and international trade, and founder of Young American Expat.  People generally see exports and international business in terms of tangible products like manufactured goods (such as cars or food). With respect to services, people generally think of the financial sector. International education doesn’t commonly appear in conversations on trade, exports or international business. But it should. 

International education is big business. According to data from the Institute of International Education, nearly one million international students are now enrolled in US universities, and contribute around $35.8 billion to the US economy.

The vast amounts of foreign direct investment US universities have made overseas also shows the importance of international education for the US economy. Taking a step beyond just affiliating themselves or forming partnerships with overseas universities. For example, the Middle East has benefited from investments from the American HE system, including New York University setting up an overseas campus in Abu Dhabi and Georgetown University setting up one in Qatar.


Enrolment: A changing American landscape
It is not news that college tuition in the USA is expensive, with the College Board saying the average cost of tuition and fees for the 2016–2017 school year is $33,480 at private colleges. This has created what many are calling a student loan crisis, which some argue could be worse than the 2008 financial crisis. Many students in America are not able to afford tuition and have no choice but to use loans, which a significant proportion of students are not able to pay back.

This has even had some wondering if college is worth it at all. According to the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center, undergraduate and graduate fall-term enrolment declined by 1.4% last year, to 19 million students. In comparison, in 2011 enrolment hit peaks of 20.6 million. Universities in America, more so than ever, have had to rely on international students to help keep enrolment up.

Outside competition
The USA has made gains from its strong education sector, which has benefited from international education exports. Even those with little background in the international education sector will realise that the USA is home to several global leading universities like Harvard, Yale and Princeton.

However, the USA is competing with the UK and many others in attracting international students. Industrialised English speaking nations like Canada, Australia and Ireland have their own prestigious universities, which rank on par with those in the USA. These countries are seeing much growth in their international education sector and are ambitious towards expansion.

According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, international education had a record-breaking 2015-16 in Australia, making the nation more than A$20 billion and confirming international education’s status as the country’s third-biggest earner and becoming its largest service export.

Ireland last year set a goal to make their international education sector worth €2 billion by 2020.

Also, international student enrolment at universities in Canada, Australia and Ireland has been improving for several years.

In Canada some universities have seen a huge surge in applicants, to the extent that they have to turn many qualified students down, due to a limited source of funding and places.
Additionally, many non-English speaking countries – both in industrialised nations and also emerging economies – now offer a significant proportion of their programs, particularly in postgraduate studies, in English. These include the likes of some of the best universities in the world, such as IESE and IE Business School in Spain and HEC Paris offering MBAs and other business degrees entirely in English.

Current political climate
Many countries, such as Canada, Australia and Ireland expect to see their enrolment increase even more given the past year with the current political climate in the USA and the UK.

In the US, President Trump has shown the world an “America First” approach, which is being felt with regards to international business and wider international trade. Headlines were made recently as President Trump reportedly floated potential cuts to the J-1 exchange visa program.

Meanwhile, countries like Ireland have actually made it more appealing for international students to work post-graduation. Recently Ireland doubled the time graduates can remain and find work after graduation, from 12 months to 24.

For the US, President Trump’s stance on immigration is not appealing to many considering the US for study. He may not be targeting international students per se, but his policy isn’t helping a sector that has been facing challenges of growing global competition.
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Perhaps the growth of other nations is a wakeup call to make the international education sector great again.

​-Richie Santosdiaz

Originally published on The PIE News April 2017

When discussing how to increase participation in study abroad, we often talk about ‘underrepresented students’ as if they’re all the same – we need to take a different approach, argues Richie Santosdiaz, an economic development expert for PA Consulting and passionate advocate for international education.

When we talk about increasing participation in study abroad among underrepresented student groups, we must first understand what an underrepresented group is.

In the context of international education or even higher education in general in the USA, this is those who are not represented in proportion to the US general population. Visible ethnic heritage in recent memory ­­­– African, Hispanic, Asian, and Native Americans – gets much attention. Other factors such as religion, gender, sexual orientation and disability can mean students aren’t well represented. And students from families with low incomes are often mentioned, as well as first generation born Americans and first generation university educated families.

The stats show that study abroad numbers are becoming more diverse, which is great news, but there is still some way to go.
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As an example, figures from NAFSA, compiled from data from IIE’s Open Doors Report and the Department of Education, show that ethnic minorities who are enrolled in universities in the USA are not reflected in the numbers that study abroad.

Is there enough support for underrepresented groups in international education?
As an advocate for international education, I am thrilled to see an increase in the number of young Americans who are interested in learning about the world and committing semesters, a year, or even completing entire degrees overseas. However, I’m convinced that we can do more to help encourage more young people from traditionally underrepresented groups—whether it be by heritage, ethnic background, or income—to study overseas.
I propose the following three points below as a starting point:
1.  Don’t lump all underrepresented groups togetherWhen I’ve seen this topic presented, often people will lump underrepresented groups into one category. With international education, it is incorrect and inaccurate to do this because you will not understand the group in detail.
When I studied abroad over a decade ago, completing semesters in Argentina and France, I was one of few that one would classify as a visible minority. Also, in both programs, almost everyone who participated came from middle- and upper-middle-class families. So within the lumped class you already have two subgroups, based on economic background.
Solutions to encourage ethnic minorities from middle and upper-middle-class backgrounds to study abroad would not necessarily be the same as those ethnic minorities from low-income households. Ethnic minorities from low-income households are likely to have an economic drive that would prevent them from going abroad, as would Caucasians from low-income households.
“Scholarships alone will not encourage more underrepresented groups to study abroad”Institutions should be listening so they are able to identify and understand who exactly are their so-called ‘underrepresented groups’ in detail, for most may have various subgroups within that group that have different needs.
2.  Don’t assume scholarships alone will encourage more underrepresented students to study abroadInstitutions are proud, as they should be, to offer an increasing amount of scholarships for those of visible minority backgrounds. Many universities and study abroad institutions, such as CIEE, give out at least partial scholarships to students in underrepresented groups. There are portals that aid in minority access to scholarships, such as Diversity Abroad, which primarily post opportunities for students who are ethnic minorities or from low-income or first-generation backgrounds.
Nevertheless, scholarships alone will not encourage more underrepresented groups to study abroad. Being an ethnic minority does not mean you are poor; some students from first-generation families and ethnic minority families might struggle more with their families’ and friends’ attitudes towards international education.
In my case, I come from a first-generation ethnic minority background and a strong middle-class family in suburban Chicago. The scholarships I received on merit and as an ethnic minority did help tremendously, but the biggest challenge I found was actually trying to sell the idea of study abroad to my family in the first place. They asked me, “Richie, we immigrated and worked hard here in America, and you want to go abroad and leave – why?” I was definitely persistent at the time, as I secretly hid my application forms and only told them I got accepted to study in Buenos Aires three months before the start of the program.

When my younger brother and sister both went abroad, my parents were much more open to the idea. But for me, I had to face the barriers to opportunities that many first generation students and ethnic minority families experience.
Another challenge was that there were instances of both unintentional and intentional racism that most of my study abroad classmates would never have to face. With this topic, other forms of support like mentoring and support prior to and during the study abroad term would have been needed.
3.  Make sure you know you know the subgroups you are targeting and are getting the community involvedFor universities looking to boost numbers of students studying abroad, it’s important not only to understand the subgroups of the underrepresented population, but also to get them involved.
I remember a while back when there was controversy over a hearing in Congress where a committee group was discussing issues around birth control. The group was only about five people and all were men. How can you discuss birth control and not have women involved?

The same rule applies here. For decisions that will affect underrepresented groups, those groups need to be involved. This includes not just giving feedback but also involvement in the decision-making of policies, incentives, and other initiatives that would aim to encourage more underrepresented groups to study abroad.
We can encourage more underrepresented college students in the USA to pursue international education opportunities
Not lumping underrepresented students together or assuming that only ethnic minority scholarships will solve the problem, and truly understanding the underrepresented and getting them involved in the process of reform will be great starting points for boosting the number of diverse students in international education, especially those who are first-generation or visible ethnic minorities, or who come from lower-income families.
In an increasingly globalized world, study abroad and international education are opportunities that should be attainable by all American college students. I am grateful myself to have had the opportunity. It has clearly impacted me, writing this article in London where I now live and work. It was a stepping stone to my international career and I hope it will be for all future generation American students as well.

​-Richie Santosdiaz

Originally written in Summer 2016 when Young American Expat had a blog and Colleen was officially part of the team

​When my friend and fellow expat Richie asked me to contribute to his awesome blog, I puzzled a bit over what to say at first. I have sometimes silently ridiculed expat forums (Americans –like myself-- complaining about a lack of peanut butter) but still secretly used them to get out of a jam (not to look for jam, most of Europe does have that). I started out an expat in London for about 3 years before moving to Madrid, where I have been for another 3 years and counting!

What I realized about expat resources is that they are essential, even if we are grown adults sometimes endlessly complaining about the (obvious) drawbacks of expat life that we brought upon ourselves. It’s like moving from one city to another in the US; we don’t have the same experience in the new city so we need to rely on other resources and a little extra support to keep up with the pack. And, just as anybody who moves has discovered, that little extra support sometimes comes in the form of relating to our past, more familiar experience.

When I struggled to land a job after finishing grad school in London, Richie was there as my sounding board. It just wasn’t a formalized and literal sounding board. And as I am currently changing jobs while finishing my last year of a doctorate program in Madrid, expat job forums are my lifeline. But I guess I shouldn’t spend the whole post confessing to my previous suspicion of expat culture; clearly I have finally realized it is an organic and necessary thing! Instead, I’ll go into why the expat life is for me, and what the expat life in Madrid is like.

I am lucky because I moved to Madrid with a best friend and Madrid native already lined up; I met Teresa at grad school in London. Sadly, I had never studied Spanish, so I was off to a rough start with my only friend speaking perfect English and a job conducted entirely in English. Since then, I’ve slowly progressed, with my doctoral program requiring Spanish and gradually expanding my friend group.

Which is the advantage of my situation—most of my friends are Spanish and not expat. Again, I have less of a need for expat support because my (newlywed!) husband Dani is an (involuntarily) captive audience if I need to rant about his city or culture (it helps that he is a Madrileño that studied high school in the US and can speak to me in an accent that is more American than my own, and understands my culture almost too perfectly). Basically, I’ve been warmly invited into the Spanish culture since day one, which (from reading expat forums), I have heard isn’t the norm. I owe a lot to Teresa. Most Spaniards I know have friends since diapers or at least high school (well Teresa does too, but has allowed me to join the diaper circle anyway), unlike my American friendships, most of which I have formed at the earliest in high school and usually later in college. It’s hard to break in not so much because of an unfriendliness thing, or because of the perpetual expat language barrier, but more because you’ve been missing out on inside jokes for 25 years.

​And the Spanish culture that I sometimes huff and puff about? Well I can’t speak for all of Spain, because like the States it is vastly diverse (arguably more so given the longer history and different languages), but I can (conditionally) rave about young professional life in Madrid. Myth one busted: I haven’t witnessed Spanish laziness--they DO work hard—at least all the people I know do. Myth two confirmed: They party hard (and relax hard, if that’s a thing??), and I am still up for it even as I approach 30!

We work from 9 to 10 in the morning until 8 or later, Monday through Friday (some places Friday is half day), and if you live in the center that means you can sleep in until 8:30 am or so, unlike in early-morning America. Also unlike early morning-America, there’s not so much room at the end of the day to have a second life (club sports, extra-curricular CV enhancers), though for football games once or twice a week, we just bolt out of work as soon as possible to drink and snack until 11 or 12 anyway. I hit the gym in the morning, but others do it during lunch (which is longer here, at least an hour, sometimes two) or after work (yes, that means getting to dinner around 10 or 11).

Weekends are worth the work. Tapas and drinks with friends can start around midday and go on all day, lunches last for hours. You can always eat outside and in the sun for a steal compared to other countries (though our salaries are indeed much lower); beers can be as low as a buck and my beloved, and quite decent, glass of wine, around $1.50. And they always arrive with a delicious free snack (cured meats, cheese, olives, nuts), which I now feel so entitled to, becoming irate when I don’t receive it in other parts of Spain or when I visit home in the US. And same for dinner, that too lasts forever, alongside the summer sun.
The vacation also is a plus. We get about three weeks off in August (so yeah, backpack through Asia or adjoining Europe, you got time), one off at Christmas, and several three day weekends. Those three day weekends are like mini vacations every three to four weeks throughout the year. It means that partying hard can be taken to the coast, or if you want to stop drinking (for like a second) you can go hiking in the North, or explore the beautiful cities, histories and cuisines all throughout Spain.

It’s impossible to get into detail here; I’ll save it for the next post. But just a little teaser: Saturday, take a-less-than-one-hour drive out to the countryside with your friends and enjoy barbecue while “bullfighting” on a ranch in a small ring with an angry cow (i.e., just run from it and let the more experienced farmhand snuggle up to it afterwards) while the sun sets at a perfect non-humid, bug-free 75 degrees and you can laze by the pool with legendary Enrique Iglesias singing in the background and a mixed drink (or several) in hand, before taking your chartered bus back to Madrid. All for less than a night out in DC. Cheers to the expat life, I’ll try to remind myself, and you, of the drawbacks later. 

​-Colleen Boland