Honors College student turns passion for study abroad into scholarly project

January 13, 2017

By Emma Alexander,
Honors Communications Intern

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind — Purdue offers a vast array of study abroad opportunities for students, varying in length, time of year, country, content and price. Many students put a lot of thought into the decision to study abroad, weighing the positives and negatives. Oftentimes, the decision isn’t officially made until well into a student’s career at Purdue. Honors student Margaret Berkemeyer is an exception to this norm.

The Honors College junior from Columbus, Ohio is studying strategy and organizational management. She divulged that she knew she wanted to study abroad long before her freshman year of college. Her parents, for instance, met while studying abroad in Germany. What’s more, she had watched her older brother also take the opportunity to study abroad before her. The only real study abroad decision Berkemeyer had left to make once arriving at Purdue was location. With the help of the study abroad advisor for the Krannert School of Management, Berkemeyer selected Vienna, Austria as her final destination. In addition to having traveled to and enjoyed the country previously, Vienna is ranked number one in the world for quality of living. This, coupled with its interesting business class offerings, made Vienna the perfect fit for Berkemeyer.

In addition to “studying” abroad, Berkemeyer also partook in a part-time internship at an Austrian non-profit called SOS Children’s Villages International, where she worked in Human Resources. As a part of her internship, Berkemeyer completed several projects. Her favorite involved the creation of parental leave templates for the company. You see, the workplace environment and culture varies rather dramatically between America and Austria.

“In Austria a mother or father can take up to two years of parental leave and still be paid and be guaranteed the same job when he or she returns,” Berkemeyer explained. “This can cause a lot of problems for managers because they are sometimes unsure of their employees return. I created four templates that would allow the managers and employees to stay in constant communication the entire time the parent is gone.”

Outside of work and class, Berkemeyer was easily able to identify her most memorable experience abroad.

“In the first 3 weeks of being in Austria, all of the students in my program were invited to go to a Viennese ball,” she said. “This was hands down my favorite memory from abroad. The ball took place in the Hofburg Palace, which was built in the 13th century. It was so awesome being able to waltz and dance around in the palace that the Habsburg family lived in for so many years. I felt like a princess for a night!”

In addition to feeling like royalty, the junior explained that there are countless other benefits to studying abroad and she highly recommends the experience to anyone even remotely interested. In fact, she is so passionate about increasing the number of students who study abroad at Purdue, she has chosen to focus her Honors Scholarly Project on dispelling the myths of study abroad, so as to encourage fellow students to try it for themselves.

Along with inspiring her scholarly project, Berkemeyer’s experience abroad also taught her that she wants to work overseas again. Next time, she hopes to do so for several years’ time. Furthermore, her future plans include potentially teaching abroad in Europe for a year before attending graduate school for human resources management.

Studying abroad was truly an incredible and life-changing experience for Berkemeyer, and it could be for you too! In addition to trips sponsored by various schools and disciplines, the Honors College offers its own array of “Study Away” programs, both domestic and international, which you can explore further here https://honors.purdue.edu/current-students/study-away/index.php. You can also check out the Purdue page at https://www.studyabroad.purdue.edu/programs/search.cfm or contact the Study Abroad Office or the study abroad advisor for your particular college.