IIE Summit Participant: Thomas Rose

Authored By:

CIEE Alumni

Thomas Rose

CIEE Study Abroad in Lisbon, Portugal, Spring 2016. Champlain College graduate.

Thomas Rose spent spring of 2016 exploring the culture of Lisbon, Portugal – analog camera in hand. During an art history class, he befriended an Austrian creative with a bold idea to document the culinary wonders of their host city. The result? “Salt & Wonder” – a passionate print magazine exploring the culinary startup culture of Lisbon. They have proudly released their first issue and Thomas returned to his study abroad team in Portugal to share in celebration. He continues to serve as the editorial voice for the magazine while back in the United States. Thomas’ study abroad experience is an example of the unique, life-changing opportunities that studying abroad offers to intimately discover a new city, country, and culture. Learn more about Thomas:

*Photo credit: Tim Waltman. "Tim's photo was taken during my return to Lisbon a year later for the Salt & Wonder Release party. Here, facing Lisbon and the Ponte 25 de Abril from across the mighty Tejo River, (from left to Right) Me, Chris, and Anna review one of Chris's photos while Luca takes another photo. Traveling with four photographers is quite meta, as exemplified by this photo of someone taking a photo of three people reviewing a photo just taken."

What made you interested in studying in Portugal with CIEE?

My father's side of my family came off the boat from Portugal a couple generations back. I wanted to explore that heritage, and I also wanted to choose a less traveled study abroad destination. Dublin, Rome, Montreal, Barcelona, and London all seemed very popular for study abroad at the time, and I like to be different, so Portugal was perfect.

Where else in the world have you traveled?

In high school I did a week-long exchange program in the Italian alps, based out of a city called Cles, but I stayed in a small mountain village called Rumo. That was my introduction to travel. In high school, I played drums for a band that saw some underground success. Through that I was able to tour with the band down the East Coast twice, as well as around the entire United States during the summer after my freshman year of college. Finally, during my semester in Portugal I took three trips: an Easter break backpacking adventure through Amsterdam, Bremen, Hamburg, Prague, Auschwitz, Krakow, and Paris; a weekend trip to Dublin; and another weekend trip to the Azores, specifically the island of Pico, where some of my great-great-grandparents came from.

What does being a global citizen mean to you?  

Being a global citizen means I can go anywhere in the world and not just survive, but learn, appreciate, and enjoy the setting and the people who call it home.

The Summit revolves largely around making study abroad accessible to everyone. What are your thoughts on this?

The more people who are able to travel, the better. One of the biggest downsides of attending any multiple-year program at any school is that you have to stay there, and usually at a time in a young person's life when they should instead be seeing and experiencing as many things different and new as possible. Study abroad is one remedy to that. Uprooting from home and discovering a new place and its people grants perspective, from which derives understanding. In order to be a leader, especially on a global scale, you need to not only understand your own people, but all people. The wild thing about going to another place and experiencing its culture is certainly the differences, but it's also the similarities. People are people wherever you go. Everywhere people dance. Everywhere people sing. Everywhere people work, and everywhere people struggle. To travel and share these experiences is how we can learn as a globe. I believe that's what they call cultural exchange, and that's why study abroad should be accessible to everyone. Personally, study abroad allowed me to test myself – to learn how to interact in a place where I was fresh, knew no one, and couldn't speak the language. Consequently, I was able to meet some fantastic people, have some incredible experiences in far-off places, and make connections between places that are still granting me opportunity to this day.

What thoughts are you excited to contribute to the IIE Summit?

I'm excited to offer my voice as one who was bettered immensely by my time abroad and explore how it's possible to give more people that opportunity.