It is no secret that going abroad while in college is something that many students want to experience. In the traditional study abroad model, college students go abroad during the semester, take classes at a foreign university and have unforgettable experiences. Many public institutions have abroad programs they coordinate through partner universities where they send 100s of students annually. We believe that any experience abroad is a great experience. By going abroad through Sage Corps, students can save thousands of dollars in tuition payment while supplementing their abroad experience with an internship at a Startup!
At Sage Corps, we take care of all the logistics for you: from direct enrollment at the abroad university to housing/insurance at a fraction of the cost of a typical abroad experience. Our program Manager and Startup Coordinator Jacob Gordon sat down with Sage Corps Alumni A.J. Morris, who currently works in Sales Enablement at Lessonly, and spoke with him about his experience taking advantage of Sage Corps Semester program. AJ saved his parents thousands of dollars (yes, you read that right, thousands!) while still having an incredible abroad experience himself.
Jacob Gordon: What was your decision making process like for going abroad?
AJ: Well, rather than going to a country in Europe and only studying at a foreign university or abroad center, I knew that I wanted to break the traditional study abroad mold. What I mean by that is I knew I wanted to go to Ireland, and I knew I wanted to supplement my studies with an internship. However, I didn’t want to intern abroad during my Junior year summer.. In my ideal world that internship is in the U.S., which would set me up well for a full-time offer (which it did!).
Jacob: Clearly your direction and having an idea for what you wanted helped forge your study abroad experience. How did Sage Corps come into the picture?
AJ: Given that I wanted to intern during my abroad experience, this played directly into where Sage Corps separated itself from other abroad programs. I had heard about the program through my network at the University of Michigan. The fact that Sage Corps focuses specifically on Startups and Entrepreneurship made me think that the program/experience would allow me to set myself apart from my peers when applying to jobs. Additionally, Sage Corps’ relationship with foreign universities allowed me to register for classes in Dublin, my desired location.
Jacob: Thanks for the endorsement on the program. I’d love to hear a little more about the mechanics to making the experience work. Obviously, at Sage Corps our bread and butter is the summer internship.What other steps did you need to take to make this happen during the regular school year semester?
AJ: This is where Sage Corps was great. Sage Corps handled all the planning for living, studying, and working in Ireland for me. From housing, to travel insurance, to the internship, and ultimately to enrollment at DCU (Dublin City University), Sage Corps took care of all of those logistics. On the flipside, I was responsible for working with my academic advisor at UofM to determine which credits would transfer and the types of courses I needed in order to graduate on time. During the first week of October of my junior year, I committed to go abroad the next semester in the Spring. This gave both Sage Corps and me enough time to coordinate everything academically and logistically.
Jacob: Obviously there’s a bit of legwork required on the student’s end in order to get things finalized, but it sounds like it was not much added on top doing your normal semester planning/scheduling?
AJ: Yeah, it was all pretty straightforward once I committed to the program. I was given a course list from DCU, and from there I coordinated with my academic advisor on which classes to take based on my graduation requirements. It was no different than if I was going to take courses at Michigan. The other thing I want to mention is that with other abroad programs, you don’t always get to take classes at a foreign university. A lot of programs set up their own courses or you take classes at a Satellite university overseas. I was literally in classes at DCU surrounded by local students, which I found to be awesome.
Jacob: That’s incredible. Can you talk a little bit more about the housing situation?
AJ: The housing was solid. There was a small hiccup at the start where our housing was above a Pub that played music until 2am every night. But we communicated that back to Sage Corps and they took care of everything and moved us into a better situation efficiently. Seriously, props to Matt (CEO) and his team. It was great the level of support we got even though we were across the Atlantic. It was also an interesting dynamic though, with the housing. I lived in the heart of downtown Dublin to be closer to the internship, so I reverse commuted to my classes on campus. As a result, I spent more time in the city center than on campus, which to me was great. But if I’m being honest, it meant I didn’t make as close of friendships with local DCU students as I might have had I lived in the dorms on campus. There are things you have to give and take with everything. That said, given the course load and internships, it would have been difficult had I been commuting to work after class.
Jacob: I definitely hear that. It sounds like either way, you would have had a full schedule. At this point, I’d love to hear more about the actual internship experience and what that was like for you.
AJ: Yeah of course! The company I worked for was called Axonista, a design and tech firm. At the time they had about 20 employees and I got to help lead a marketing research project. I learned how to properly articulate a value proposition and position a brand externally, which has helped a bunch in my roles at Lessonly. I have to add that I was able to enroll in Marketing courses at DCU which was a perfect complement to the work I was doing at Axonista. As Sales and Marketing have increasingly overlapped and become more difficult to differentiate between, I’m thankful I had that experience.
Jacob: Yeah, most organizations these days bucket all Sales and Marketing roles under one category so I’m sure this experience has paid dividends in your current role.
AJ: Yeah, totally! Also, understanding the startup experience and workplace has transferred greatly as Lessonly is still a relatively young company itself.
Jacob: Amazing. Let’s talk costs for a minute, as an out of state student, I understand that this saved your family money in terms of tuition cost. Is that compared to other abroad programs or compared to a semester at Michigan?
AJ: The answer is actually both! Obviously, education is expensive no matter how you slice it, let’s be clear about that. But the Sage Corps abroad experience was definitely cheaper than if I selected one of the larger abroad providers and simply studied abroad with no internship. What blew my mind — and my parent’s for that matter — was by going abroad with Sage Corps it was actually cheaper than it would have been had I not gone abroad at all. It’s worth repeating, my abroad experience was cheaper than staying at my home campus for a semester. Heck, I almost considered transferring full-time to DCU (Just kidding, would never have left Michigan. Go Blue!).
Jacob: How much cheaper was it? Are we talking 100s of dollars or 1000s?
AJ: Honestly not quite sure. But when talking to my Dad it was clear that it was a significant amount of money. It wasn’t just a few hundred dollars cheaper. It was multiple thousands of dollars. As an out of state student at UofM, that makes a significant difference. You could say my dad was thrilled.
Jacob: My parents would have been thrilled as well. I’m happy to hear that you had such a strong experience through Sage Corps. Anything else you want to share?
AJ: Overall it was fantastic. Really, if any student’s considering this want to reach out to me I’d be happy to talk to them directly about my experience as well.
Jacob: Awesome, thanks so much for your time A.J. and we’ll be in touch!
AJ: Thank you!
