National Student Exchange is a great opportunity for all students that decide to apply and get into the program. That being said, it isn’t always what you expect. Here’s some backstory as to how I got involved with the program:

I’m originally from a small town in Northern Wisconsin by the name of Rhinelander. It’s about 8,000 people and in the winters it gets to temperatures as low as -40 and has blizzards once or twice a year that dump 22 inches of snow. I moved to Western Wisconsin (staying in Wisconsin because of in-state tuition) in hopes of alleviating a bit of the sting of the winters in 2012 for college. It didn’t help really. The snow fall is less in the Western part of the state, but due to the airstreams, the wind and temperatures were even worse than in the North. I decided near the middle of sophomore year of college that I had to get out of Wisconsin for at least one winter.

Enter National Student Exchange. As mentioned before, money was an issue. International Student Exchange is a pretty hefty price, however if I did National Student Exchange it would be guaranteed that I paid the same tuition that I paid to my home college. Thus begun my application process. I had to do interviews with my professors, mentors, friends, and even parents to get a character profile on myself. I also had to have an interview with members of the NSE staff. After that, I picked my top five schools that I wanted to get into. The first three were in California, where the winter would be no problem. The fourth was here at Eastern, and the fifth was New Mexico State. It’s pretty obvious which one I got taken by.

After much preparation and an extra-long summer (my break was from mid-May to mid-September) I flew out to Oregon (and realized that I can’t handle flying anymore). I had a tough time getting used to the change in college size and how the system is run over here. That paired with my somewhat off-putting demeanor towards people I don’t know made it hard for me to meet and make friends. About two weeks into my stay here I started getting a little stir-crazy and lonely. I asked my advisor, Janet Camp, about jobs on campus. She showed me a flyer that advertised that KEOL was hiring a program director. I followed up immediately, expecting a brief tour of the station and info on how to hire. I got this of course, but what I didn’t expect was an hour and a half spent talking to the station manager, Courtney, about music. I knew at that point that even if I didn’t get the job I needed to get involved with an awesome organization such as this.

Turns out both happened. I took the FM broadcasting class for the Fall 2014 term and simultaneously was implemented as this year’s program director. I was having some qualms about staying for more than one term, as I was and am incredibly homesick from time to time, but KEOL has brought me back to finish out the academic year. I’m looking to help the station now in any way I can.