My Study Abroad Experiences and How It Led to an Internship Abroad

Wittern by Ryan Javier, Marketing Intern

Hong Kong, Mexico, Singapore, South Africa, Ireland, Antigua and Barbuda. To any other person, this would just be a random list of countries and cities. But not to me. To me, these cities represent stepping stones in my academic and professional journey. All once temporary homes for me, these places and the people I met there, shaped who I am today. Whether for study abroad or community service, I had the immense privilege of traveling to all these destinations on a variety of study abroad programs. And now, I’m writing about them, as an intern in Kyoto Japan. Life is truly what you make of it. 

Hi! My name is Ryan Javier. Originally from San Francisco CA, I graduated in the Spring of 2026 from Lehigh University with degrees in Interdisciplinary Studies and Global Studies. I work at CIEE Kyoto as the Fall 2026 Business and Marketing Intern, where I work with both the marketing team and the Kyoto team to promote marketing initiatives and support on-site operations.  But how long did it take me to get here? Well I would say that it took me about 6 countries to get here.

Let me take you back to my first study abroad experience. It was 2023 and study abroad was finally opening up again after COVID-19. As a first year in college, I couldn’t sit still. I wanted to go see the world. And see the world I did. With $0 in my bank account, I went looking for fully funded opportunities. One of the few that I found was a fellowship offered by CIEE called the Frederick Douglass Global Fellowship (now renamed Douglass O’Connell Global Internship). By fate, I was selected as one of 12 fellows nationwide to travel to Washington DC, Cape Town South Africa, and Ireland (Dublin, County Mayo, Belfast) on a comparative study on nonviolent diplomacy and global leadership strategies, with a focus on leaders such as Frederick Douglass and Archbishop Desmond Tutu. Besides the lifelong memories and friends that I made there, little did I know that that experience would change the course of my life forever. 

Shortly after the fellowship, I traveled on a one week study trip to Mexico City and Guanajuato, with a cohort of Lehigh students under the Global Citizenship Program. In Mexico, we looked at indigenous ways of knowing, and reflected on what being a global citizen truly meant. Then my sophomore summer, I traveled to Hong Kong for two months, where I interned at Hutchison Ports. While there, I worked on simulations to track energy usage and efficiency with Hutchison’s innovative autonomous trucks. The semester immediately following that, I traveled to Singapore where I was an exchange student at the Singapore University of Technology. There, I took classes and ate at hawker centers like a local Singaporean.

Just when you think that’s enough, it’s not. I wanted to keep learning, to keep growing, to keep trying new things. So I kept taking risks. I kept applying for programs and experiences. My junior summer, I traveled back to Singapore under the Critical Language Scholarship, having learned Mandarin Chinese intensively for two months. My last trip abroad during my undergraduate studies was to a small Caribbean island nation, Antigua and Barbuda. Probably the most fitting end to my adventures abroad. There, I painted schools for elementary school students, visited a school for the differently abled, and sat into a mock parliament made up of entirely Antiguan and Barbudan women. It may be a small nation, but it had a enormous impact on me.

Then, one fateful day, after I graduated, I received an email from CIEE asking for new graduates for their business and marketing internship. As a CIEE alum myself, I jumped at the opportunity. And the rest of the story you know already. Now, as I reflect on my four years in college, and my brief time as an intern here at CIEE Kyoto, I am grateful for all the opportunities that I had. All the people that I had to say goodbye to without knowing when I would see them again. All the grants and scholarships that I utilized to pay for these programs. All the faculty and professors who wrote letters of recommendation for me, or who took a chance and accepted me into these prestigious programs. All my friends and family who got into the routine of throwing farewell parties for me every few months. And most of all, grateful for me, my body, my spirit, for taking that first step, for taking risks despite the fear, and for getting me to where I am today.