Kassandra

About Kassandra’s program:

• Program: USF Science in Florence (She is a Bio-medical Sciences major!) She attended Summer 2017.

• Program cost: about $4,800 which included 6 weeks in Florence, 2 courses tuition, her room, perks of the university such as access to their gym, and class field trips

Advice from Kassandra:

• During her trip, Kassandra did not want to miss out on opportunities abroad because of finances, so she instead made sure to always make smart decisions with her money. Much of it was a give and take with what she wanted to spend her money on.

• She was able to find a lot of free options, such as walking trails to see the city view of Florence rather than paying for expensive museums or hiking in Switzerland instead of paying for expensive adventure sports. In addition, she recommends haggling with tour companies because she got them to lower some prices for her! For her trip to Switzerland she wanted to go last minute with a friend who had already booked prior, and by explaining to the worker in the SmartTrips office that she wanted to go but could not afford the last minute price, he gave her a discount.

• Although she did spend more than anticipated, she did not think she would get to travel nearly as much as she did (basically every weekend of her program!). In the end, the additional money spent was worth it to explore so many extra cities.

• Despite running out of money her last night in Paris, Kassandra saw this mishap as an adventure and spent the night in a park and then in the airport. Because the end was near, she didn’t mind getting through her last day like this. She says sometimes what you think might be the worst thing in the world can actually be a great story!

• Packing wise, Kassandra focused on having a staple outfit. Hers was a black romper. People often over prepare and spend too much on things beforehand, when in reality you probably have all you need in your closet already. Although she loves doing makeup in her free time, she decided not to bring too much since she would be spending her free time traveling and exploring. She also thinks its important to budget for wardrobe malfunctions like if your shoes give out from walking around so much.

How Kassandra afforded her trip:

• Kassandra first went to an informational meeting about studying abroad and learned about various scholarships she could obtain through the Honors College (because she is a part of it) and through the Global Citizens Project. She found that priority goes to students who have not been abroad before so she had a better chance of receiving these.

• She moved in with someone to save money on her rent.

• She started a Go Fund Me account that raised $400 on her Facebook! She found that more people donated because they saw the benefit in traveling additional places and in expanding her horizons.

• She opened a Venture credit card with Capital One that gave her 0% APR on her first year so many of her in country expenses she charged to her card with a $2000 limit. She knew she still had her job at Target when returning to USF after her educational leave, so she had the safety of being able to pay back her card upon return.

• In addition to getting educational leave from her job, Kassandra also made her supervisor and coworkers aware that she was willing to pick up any extra shifts so that she could save up as much as possible.

• After reviewing her career path, Kassandra realized that she could still obtain her goals of medical school without her second major in physics. By changing that major to a minor, she gave herself more time within her schedule to work and save for her travels.

• To make additional money, Kassandra sold a lot of things that were cluttering her room. She used the app Mercari to sell them and thought if she really would miss some of the clothes she got rid of she could probably find something similar in the mall.