Work & Travel USA Alumni Video Contest Winner: Ionut Avramescu

In October, we asked our alumni to piece together their amazing Work & Travel USA experiences through video.  We were interested in learning more about what they took away from their time in the U.S. The response we received was outstanding and now we want to share it with you! 

To kick off this series is our Work & Travel USA Alum Video Contest winner, Ionut! We asked him to tell us, in his own words, about his experience working and living in Montana. Make sure to scroll to the bottom to watch Ionut's winning video entry!  

By Ionut Avramescu, CIEE Work & Travel USA 2017 Participant

This video is a short journey through my 2017 American experience, summing up the most important events of the summer I spent in USA, and also describing how I see the American culture and USA as a country. As for me, I am 24, living in Bucharest, Romania. I studied Geography of Tourism at the bachelor’s degree. At the master’s I changed the domain a bit and went to Faculty of Geology. The master’s was about protected areas (national parks, geoparks, etc). As a person, everyone knows me by my enthusiasm, positive energy, jokes and smile. In my spare time, I love reading (I do some writing too), going to theater workshops (I also wrote a play), drawing and playing with my cat (her name is Aby). 

I decided to go to America because I always dreamed about travelling there and I was in a moment in my life when I wanted to make a big change. Also, my studies were about tourism and national parks, so I chose a national park to work in. This experience meant a lot for me, it changed the way I feel about myself, I did my best on everything - job, planning my trips, discovering myself.  My job in the USA was not the first job for me, I worked before in Romania, but from every experience I learned something new, so I improved my English skills and my communication abilities. The video, as mentioned before, tells the story of my experience. As about the places I visited: Glacier National Park (I lived there for the entire summer), Yellowstone National Park and Grand Teton National Park (I was there in September, took 3 days off with some of my Romanian colleagues, rented a car, and made an amazing roadtrip), and at the end of the summer, I took a flight to Los Angeles and I visited some nice places: Las Vegas, Grand Canyon, Santa Barbara, San Francisco and Yosemite National Park. After this tour, we went to New York, and Washington DC. I hope that people who watch the video and/or read this, to be inspired to get over their limits and to try the Work & Travel USA experience. It changes so many things, your way of seeing the world and even yourself.  One of my favorite quotes, I put it in the video as well, is: “The world's big and I want to have a good look at it before it gets dark.” (John Muir)

Make sure to check the Exchanges Blog regularly to read about our other video contest finalists!

For more information on the CIEE Work & Travel USA program, please visit our website.