Studying abroad is once in a lifetime experience, so taking notes capturing moments and documenting your travel is an essential part. Make sure you record the places you visited, and the things you experienced during your high school study abroad program.
It is good to remember the importance of doing things and more important is “why” you are doing “what” you are doing. In this regard, the best time to document your study abroad program is during your high school study abroad program or immediately, after you get home as the memories are still fresh!
On that note, lets dive deep into what are the most effective and creative ways to document your time during your study abroad program:
Keep a Journal or Handbook
It is often seen in studies, that writing regularly, and documenting thoughts can help students get their creative juices flowing. Writing regularly also releases stress of your daily life.
Even if you do not consider yourself as a good writer, you need not worry: the best way to get better at writing is to just keep doing it. The benefits go much beyond than crafting better sentences.
As a student of a high school exchange program, a travel journal is where you can write about trips you have taken, what you learnt and the experiences you had. Treat it as a collection of adventures, stories, memories and discovery.
So, keeping a journal or handbook during your high school cultural exchange will help you to Remember – Learn – Reflect
You remember more as you write down all activities that you participated during your study abroad program. This helps to remember more about the places you visited. In the process of travelling you learn more about the culture, customs and people of the place you visit. When you write them down, you absorb more of the surroundings. Finally, you will be able to look back and reflect on all the things that you have learned and eventually apply it to other parts of your life.
Capture Moments in photos that matters!
Photography in its art form heightens a sense of awareness. It helps us appreciate the good and better things in life. Capturing moments is all about seeing the bright spots in your say, recognizing them and further going on to capture them.
Most phones today have good to great cameras; making it easy enough to snap photos during your adventure. The point we are making here is, “the best camera is the one you have with you”. A moment that is captured is worth so much more than a moment that is forgotten. It really does not matter how imperfect the lighting, or how basic is the camera.
During your high school study abroad program, click enough photos to document your travel. No matter what you do with the photos, you won’t regret taking them. It is a good way to let people experience your student exchange program abroad through your lenses. Also, once you get back home, it won’t be a bad idea to print these photos polaroid style and hang them in your room.
Create a Blog or start a Vlog
Student enrolling for a high school cultural exchange normally do decide to start a blog or vlog, depending on their preference. It is true that writing a blog can feel cumbersome at start and like shouting into the wind; as there are thousands of blogs out there. However, we are sure yours will be different, it will have your journey; your story. So, don’t let anything stop you and start one of your own.
It’s a great way to record all your adventures, just the way they happen. If you prefer vlog, you many need some basic camera skills and once you have shot the video, you will need to edit your shots in the later half.
Either you choose to blog or vlog during your study abroad program, you need to make a few strategies once you understand who your audience is going to be. You start, you ideate, you improvise and eventually you get better at the craft. It’s that simple!
Use Story Telling Apps, to paint your journey!
Storytelling is the art of how we interpret meanings, connect with people in our day to day lives, and the ability to articulate about our complex or amicable surroundings in a digestible manner. Through a storytelling approach you earn the right to portray your experience.
Today, we have a lot of engaging apps that you can choose from. Some of them are web based and the others are mobile app based. Choose one as per your preference and tell your story during your student exchange program.
You can also choose to give mentions to few of your new friends made abroad as well. This way the content can get more engaging. We are not promoting any story telling apps, so we leave it up to you to google and find out which is the best suited for you.
Share content on Social Media & Live Stream
Social media and live stream are good predictors of trends. There is a lot of content already there and yet room for even more. So, craft your trend accordingly and go with the flow.
Share photos and live stream regularly. If you carefully curate all your posts, your Instagram feed can surely tell a story about your entire journey.
