I can’t believe the time has come. In one week it would have been one year since I packed my bags and left Australia.

Studying abroad was always a driving motivation for me during my studies and deciding to study at RheinAhrCampus was a decision I made in a day. I knew I wanted Europe and Germany as my destination and RheinAhrCampus turned out to be my home away from home.

My first semester was full of meeting new people, travelling, starting a new internship, learning in a new environment and the scariest, living by myself. However, once I was able to settle into everyday life, I was able to make Remagen my home and feel comfortable being independent. So comfortable in fact that I had to stay an extra semester.

The support here at RheinAhrCampus was great and really came in useful when I felt homesick. As RheinAhrCampus is a medium-sized university, it is less anonymous, many students know each other, and my friends became my family.

My internship, which is part of the English Programme, was also a major part of my life here in Germany. At the beginning of my internship I was asked to think about what I would like to achieve through the experience and to start with I was really quite unsure. After a few introductory internship meetings I decided that my three main goals for my year-long internship would be:

1. Expand my computer knowledge using online platforms and more advanced software

2. Create, modify and organise necessary documents for the Sprachen/Internationales team

3. Become not only a student assistant, but a tutor available to students that need any help to do with the course, or with their English etc.

The internship has been an amazing opportunity for me, as I have already learnt so much and continue to learn new things every day. I am glad to be able to say that I have definitely achieved my original goals and conquered a lot more. I was able to manage an intercultural blog

(http://rheinahrcampusexchangestudents.blogspot.com/), develop the department’s use of social media, organise two major events on campus and also participate in and contribute to concepts of an award-winning podcast “Absolutely-Intercultural” (www.absolutely-intercultural.com).

My professional skills have been dramatically improved in a nurturing environment, where everyone in the department was happy to help. I would encourage anyone that has the opportunity to participate in such an internship, to take it - because not only will your CV grow, but you will personally as well.

For more information on the campus internship, you can visit www.rheinahrcampus.de/Campus-Internship.3994.0.html

Also in closing, I would like to thank every single person that made my stay in Germany and at RheinAhrCampus unforgettable!

Bis später,
Lucy