Davae Gibson could not stop smiling, betraying her desire to spend a semester at a top uni­ver­sity in another country.

It was Thursday morning in the Curry Stu­dent Center Indoor Quad, the site of this fall’s Study Abroad Fair.

“I really want to take advan­tage of North­eastern and get inter­na­tional expe­ri­ence,” said Gibson, AMD’19. “What better way to learn more about dif­ferent cultures?”

She noted that London and Rome topped her inter­na­tional wish list. As the second-​​year archi­tec­ture major put it, “There’s so much beau­tiful archi­tec­ture in Europe.”

The fair, hosted by Northeastern’s Global Expe­ri­ence Office, con­vened 500 stu­dents as well as rep­re­sen­ta­tives of more than 30 inter­na­tional study programs.

There was Queen Mary Uni­ver­sity of London and Amer­ican Uni­ver­sity of Rome. There was the Uni­ver­sity of Auck­land, in New Zealand, and the Uni­ver­sity of Sydney, in Australia.

Elan Axel­bank, SSH’18, looked for study abroad pro­grams in South America. A Spanish minor, he wants to improve his second-​​language skills.

“I also want to get a sharper per­spec­tive on how the world works,” he added. “What’s hap­pening in the United States can’t be looked at inde­pen­dently of what’s hap­pening in Chile or China or any­where else.”

Lauren Victor, E’19, honed her global per­spec­tive last fall, spending the semester studying in Greece through the N.U.in Pro­gram. Now she wants to study abroad again, showing up on Thursday looking for oppor­tu­ni­ties suited her bio­engi­neering major.

“Studying abroad makes it easier to under­stand other cul­tures and makes you more com­pas­sionate,” she said, explaining the ben­e­fits of the pro­gram. “It gave me access to dif­ferent people and dif­ferent opinions.”

Zafar Karimov, S’20, didn’t waste any time in accli­mating to Northeastern’s expe­ri­en­tial edu­ca­tion model.

One day after attending his first col­lege class, the first-​​year neu­ro­science major strode into the Indoor Quad looking to explore his inter­na­tional options.

He was born in Uzbek­istan, grew up in New York, and wants to explore Europe.

“I’m looking for­ward to meeting new people and seeing new places,” Karimov said. “I think I can learn some­thing from them and their experiences.”

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