SIM: My passport to a global education
6 March 2025
Growing up, Michaela always dreamt of pursuing a degree abroad.
The thought of being exposed to a new culture in a new environment coupled with her family’s history of completing their undergraduate studies in the U.S made it her personal aspiration.
“Whenever my parents would recount their time in the U.S, I would fall in love with the idea of being there one day and doing what they did,” Michaela confessed. “Seeing what my siblings did, the places they went and the life they were living made me imagine living just like them.”
However, when the pandemic hit, the idea of going overseas for her degree became even more challenging due to travel restrictions and financial constraints.
Seeking alternatives for her education, Michaela considered both local and private schools. It was during this research that SIM caught her attention because of its Global Education Programme.
“I then thought about the ‘American education’ that I once dreamt of and figured this could be a step in that direction!” she expressed.
“And in her last year of her SIM academic life, her wish finally came true.
WHEN DREAMS TAKE FLIGHT
“Not only did Michaela fulfill her decade-long dream, but she did it while on a scholarship with University at Buffalo which provided a semester of tuition fees and an allowance for flight and accommodation.
“This was the first scholarship I had ever applied for—even the thought of applying for a scholarship was so foreign and far for me because I was never quite ‘scholarship-material’,” Michaela admitted.
Although the process was nerve-wrecking as she was filled with self-doubts, she decided to press on “because without the scholarship, I would not even consider going.”
Aside from obvious tips like having good grades and getting a strong recommendation letter from professors, being sincere is also important, the recipient for the SIM-UB Scholarship for Spring 2024 shared.
This is because she believes that the scholarship isn’t a competition of who wants to go the most, but a meaningful award to the student who would “make best use of the opportunity and share the wonder of their experience later”.
“I don’t exactly know why I was selected, but I do know that I was genuine about why I wanted the scholarship and why it meant so much to me,” she dished out.
And with a heart filled with anticipation, Michaela took off for New York for the next five months.
BROADEN HORIZONS, BROADEN MINDS
Making full use of her time overseas, Michaela checked off many of her “firsts”.
From living independently to watching sports games like the Super Bowl to travelling interstates from Vegas to Grand Canyon, Michaela could barely believe how many life’s new experiences could be achieved within a short few months.
Along with the many new opportunities, there were also many enriching experiences at the University at Buffalo.
“I was taking a wide range of courses, from Criminology to dance and weight training,” she recalled. “I found myself constantly shifting gears and putting on different frames of mind with every class—a sweet challenge to the mind!”
Michaela was also surrounded by students from all over the world which “created an environment of endless worldviews”.
Using the words of her Assistant Resident Director, Kandis Pogoda, Michaela continued, “It is all about embracing new experiences to see the world through different ‘coloured’ lenses and adding them onto our current worldview to create more nuanced shades.”
The exposure had a profound and positive impact on her.
“One profound change I have observed in myself today is the way I communicate and interact with people,” Michaela noted, highlighting how she loved the way people she met were able to express their thoughts and communicate effectively.
“I have learnt that speaking my mind more helps to avoid un-communicated thoughts and intentions.”
WORDS OF WIDSOM
One piece of advice that Michaela has for students going on exchange would be to make friends and do things together.
“The international friends will be your engine to explore things together, and the local friends will show you how it's done.”
That said, Michaela also found it difficult to balance between being financially responsible and being #YOLO.
“I was constantly torn between ‘explore!’ and ‘stretch out your dollar’,” she recollected. “Although I could just come back one day, ultimately, this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to be the age that I am, with the people I was with, living in this highlight of my twenties with a youthful spontaneity.”
Learning how to count her opportunity costs and trade-offs was tough, but it allowed Michaela to appreciate every moment more.
And it is with this spirit that she could look back and say that her exchange programme was “the best time of my life”.
Having graduated, Michaela’s time in SIM taught her to seek out what she wants and to create opportunities for herself.
“As SIM’s partnering universities are based in other parts of the world, students get to peek into a glimpse of the different cultures, history and societies,” she pointed out. “The experience you get out of these few years is truly what you make of it.”
Being familiar with international and cross-cultural contexts is so helpful given the global extent of the working world today, she affirmed.
Concluding her three years with SIM-University at Buffalo, Michaela summed up, “Looking back on the privilege, I have to say that my ultimate goal in university was not the degree, but the learning.
“And I had the privilege of learning what I love, and I got a degree while I was at it.”