France: Cami Pendleton
Cami Pendleton had such a great experience when she studied in France last year, she decided to make a video about Missouri Western’s Study Away Office as an assignment in her Multimedia Authoring class last spring.
“I could have made it about anything, but I’m so passionate about study away,” said the St. Joseph, Missouri native. “France was an incredible life-changing adventure.”
The English technical writing major with minors in general business, literature and French studied in Saint-Étienne, France for a month during the summer of 2016. She lived with a host family and took French classes at Jean Monnet University.
“Everything I learned in the classroom came to life over there,” Pendleton said.
She said she learned a tremendous amount about French culture, but also about other cultures by studying together and taking weekend trips with students in her class that were from around the world. In fact, a student from South Korea stayed with the same host family as she did.
Although Pendleton says the food was incredible (“The French take their food seriously”), her most memorable takeaway was meeting new friends and learning about their cultures.
For her
video, which now resides on
Missouri Western’s Study Away page, she interviewed two other students who had studied overseas and Tammy (Glise) Norris ’79, who coordinates the University’s study away and exchange programs. She also asked professors to give advice for travelers in the language they teach on the video.
And her advice to fellow students who are considering foreign travel? Keep an open mind and take a lot of photos. “Don’t be ashamed of having a selfie stick,” she added with a laugh.
Pendleton says her French trip gave her the travel bug, and this past summer, she traveled to Norway and Italy to visit friends. “All I want to do now is travel.”
Ms. Molleigh Arn, MWSU student 
