work abroad for a study abroad company

After applying for three years in a row I FINALLY got the job working for a study abroad company this summer in Italy. I guess if you want something enough it pays to keep on trying. I just found out last week that I got the job. Waiting for more details to arrive in the mail. Yea!

I found out at my interview that they are actually considering me for a senior staff position instead of a resident adviser position. There are two senior staff positions that work as assistants to the director of the Florence program: the Resident Director and the Activities Director. They said that the RAs are usually college Juniors or Seniors and that with my experience and knowledge of Italian and Florence I would be suited for a senior staff position. I was excited to hear that.

They asked a lot of questions about what challenges I thought I would face being responsible for high school students on a five week study abroad. In my application I had said that homesickness would probably be something that students would face and that I would be able to help them with that. In the interview she said that in her experience directing the program in Spain she didn’t find that to be a problem at all. What she really wanted to know was how I was going to handle these students who are probably abroad for the first time and in a country where there is no enforced drinking age. (The program has a zero tolerance policy for alcohol). She also wanted to know if I would be able to be firm about rules and possibly have to do unpleasant things like send kids home from the program who broke them. She said we all want to be loved but that isn’t the best thing (I immediately thought Machiavelli). I responded with several anecdotes from teaching. Classroom Management 101.

I would leave for the program immediately after school ends in June. My flights, room and board would be covered. The only thing they said about salary was that it depended on the position and experience. I am still wondering if they pay based on a your-lucky-to-be-working-in-Italy-and-therefore-we-don’t-pay-that-much attitude or more based on the responsibility of managing five RAs and 50 HS students. I didn’t ask because the truth is I will probably accept the job either way so it doesn’t really matter.

At the end of the interview they said that they had several people to interview for senior staff positions and would let me know by the end of March. That seems like soooo long. I was so hoping that they would immediately say “You’re perfect. You have the job!” (Does that happen often?) And, if they don’t choose me for senior staff would they still select me for the original position that I applied?

Now I am nervous. I so want to go. It is going to be really hard to wait over a month to know what I will be doing this summer.

Another one of my schemes for staying in Italy when I was an exchange student was to work for a study abroad company. It seemed like the perfect job because it would be a real job in a foreign country (as opposed to working illegally in the leather market, waiting tables or teaching—all things that I have done). At the time I wasn’t able to find any opening that would allow me to stay in Italy and work after my exchange ended.

Since then I’ve become distracted by a lot of other things but I still think about the idea of working for a study abroad company. Living in Florence and being the director of the program would be an ideal job for me. I’ve looked at a lot of bios for people working for various companies and it seems like most of them have studied abroad, speak at least one other language fluently, and have several experiences working abroad. A lot have also studied international education and have either a masters or a PhD.

I think I’m definitely on my way to having a lot of those qualifications having studied abroad, been an exchange student, I have a BA in Italian and speak fairly fluently, I taught English in Italy for a year and have spent a couple of summers working in Greece. I’m currently working on my Masters in Teaching English as a Second Language. I would also love to study International Education or International Relations or something like that. (I’ve seriously thought about going to the School for International Training). I’m not 100% sure that this is my ultimate career goal; there are still so many things that I would consider doing. I’m definitely keeping it as an option though.

This summer I may have the chance to take another step in this direction. I applied for a job as a resident adviser for a high school level study abroad program in Florence (where I lived for two years). Not only am I excited about the chance to go back to Italy for the summer but I really think that this could be a stepping stone to becoming a director if that is what I choose to do. I would also have a chance to see how the organization works and if it is really something that I want to do.

I was called for an interview this Wednesday so I’m really excited to see how it turns out.