Hi everyone! Sadly, it’s official: my time in London is over. Six and a half weeks went by in a flash. I am forever grateful for the opportunity to take part in this program, and I wouldn’t change my experience for the world. I accomplished so much more than I ever expected to in such a short amount of time.

First, I’ll start with a quick recap of everywhere I’ve visited on the program. I started my journey in Camden Town, where I lived for the entirety of the six weeks that I was there. I, then, moved on to Kensington to visit the CAPA center where I had my classes and orientations as well as other CAPA hosted activities. Then, I started my internship in Shoreditch, working for a non-profit organization called Elephant Family. Once I was settled into my daily routine, I was able to venture off to new places such as Stonehenge, Bathe, Greenwich, Brighton, Oxford and Notting Hill. I was also fortunate enough to be able to travel outside of the United Kingdom to Dublin, Ireland and Brussels, Belgium. All of my traveling allowed me to truly see the world and experience the different cultures around the world.

Reflecting back on everything I’ve seen and done whilst in London, I realized just how much I actually learned. Coming into the program, I didn’t really know what to expect. I thought that since they spoke English, communication would be easy, and it was but it wasn’t. I could communicate simple things to everyone, but there are so many minor differences in vocabulary that hindered my ability to understand and communicate with my colleagues. With this in mind, I was able to develop my adaptability and learn to understand what they meant by the unfamiliar phrases they were using. Another thing that I learned was to really embrace my differences. Since I was working with people of all different cultures, we were all able to contribute our different understandings of the topic based on our different backgrounds. For instance, no one in my office was from the US, so when it came to US addresses or landmarks, I was able to help them a lot more than others might have been able to. This ability to have confidence in the fact that everyone is different will be helpful in everything I do moving forward because I will be more willing to contribute my opinions, knowing that I will have different insights from others.

As for the accounting program, I was able to learn about what it would be like to work internationally. This was incredibly helpful, as I see myself working in London or another international city later on in my career. I also learned so much more about accounting as a concept. I knew about tax and audit and insurance, but I didn’t know nearly as much as I thought I did. Now I do.

Overall, this program has been insanely helpful in enhancing my cross-cultural awareness and knowledge of the business world around me. I have learned and experienced so much that will help me further my academic and professional careers. For this, I am eternally grateful for CAPA and GBI for allowing me to participate in such an amazing program in such an amazing city.

That’s all from me. Cheers!

Jackie