Mikayla MacQuarrie's Spotlight
Mikayla MacQuarrie
About Mikayla
Mikayla is a fourth-year student at Penn State Behrend majoring in International Business and Marketing. During the Spring Break of 2023, Mikayla studied abroad in Rome, Italy through our IT 130: Italian Culture and Civilization embedded program. Over the summer, she also studied abroad in Seoul, South Korea through our Sungkyunkwan University, International Summer Semester program.
Continue reading to learn more about how Mikayla chose a program, how she prepared for her time abroad, how her experience abroad grew her as a person, and the highlights of her time in Italy and Korea in her own words!
Mikayla wearing traditional Korean hanbook at the Gyeongbokgung Palace in Seoul, South Korea
Mikayla at the Trevi Fountain in Rome, Italy
Mikayla atop the Victor Emmanuel II monument in Rome, Italy
Mikayla posing in a museum in Rome, Italy!
Mikayla posing at the Jumunjin Beach in Gangneung, South Korea
Mikayla's Education Abroad Experience
"I chose both programs as they were affordable (even though the flight to Seoul, South Korea was super pricey at the time), and I enjoyed the embedded course at Behrend because two of our professors traveled with us!
I was surprised by how independent the South Korea program allowed us to be. I traveled alone for the first time, navigated through the country alone, and all without knowing the language...which was a huge challenge, but it was an experience I went through that helped me to understand our international students a lot more.
In the pre-session before classes began at SKKU, I took three Korean lessons, listened to a presentation from a Korean start-up company, participated in a temple cuisine cooking class with Buddhist monks, walked along the Jumunjin Beach, wore traditional Korean hanboks at the Gyeongbokgung Palace, ordered street food at the Kwangjang Market, toured the Korea Ginseng Corporation (KGC), went on a cruise on the Han River, and attended a Korean Pop (K-pop) concert. While taking classes at SKKU, I attended three field trips: the presidential Blue House, Everland, and an art and dance show put on by the Painters. Outside of school, my friends and I visited the Namsan Tower, the Starfield COEX Mall, Lotte World, Gangnam, Hongdae, Itaewon, Insadong, Myeongdong, and Dongdaemun.
Before going to Rome, we studied symbolism, ideals of beauty, multiculturalism, religion and state, art and propaganda, and Italian history. It was such a thrill to visit the places we studied in class and further our knowledge during our time there. Some of my favorite parts of the trip include visiting the Roman Forum, Trajan’s Column, the birthplace of the Pizza Margherita, Anzio Beach, and yes…Italian McDonald’s! In my global marketing class this semester, we had a class discussion centered around a McDonald’s case study for locations all over the world. I was so excited to see that it had its own unique atmosphere and menu items, just as I had researched in class!"