Sarah Schlunter grew up in Central Germany, specifically the suburban city of Herdecke, which is close to Dortmand. She has a love for traveling; all of her money pleasingly goes to it. She’s been to 30 states, many countries such as Europe, Costa Rica, and Tunisia, and would ultimately like to stay on east coast of the United States after graduation.

Sarah’s family initially introduced her to the idea of traveling. Her dad likes to travel, her family always went on a trip once a year during summer breaks, and they usually drove and camped. But what really introduced her to the depth of traveling, learning, and being exposed to new cultures was her au pair year.

After High School, Sarah took two gap years. When she was 18 years old, she became an au pair in Saint James, Long Island, New York. It became her second home there. She met lots of people from all over, opening her mind to new cultures. After that, she went back to Germany, worked for 8 months, traveled more, and began her college career.

Sarah studied in Bremen for two years studying Comparative and European Law. Through the program, since it pertains to international relations, students have to study abroad for a whole year, which was fortunately something Sarah was completely willing and happy to do. She wanted to come back to Long Island since it is closer to Germany compared to other schools of her choice, and it’s affordable. She also loves Long Island for its beaches, and New York in general for its diversity and access to outdoor activities like hiking. When she returns to Germany after this semester, she has another year until graduation.

In Germany, classes she took were German Law and many different classes for different European countries. In the classes she learned how to compare different legal systems. For example, she stated,

“Say you’re a German lawyer. You have a trade contract with someone from France. You need to know how make a contract that shows both sides of the law.”

Being an international student can come with excitement as well as many difficulties and adjustments. Sarah explains her experience with adjusting to the American culture:

“People are very outgoing, friendly, and helpful here, but Germans are more reserved, especially the older generations. It takes more time to get to know someone here more quickly. Once you know someone German, they’re more committed. Here, you can easily make plans and then never hear from them about it. Once you know how it works, it’s fine,” Sarah explains.

All cultures have differences and similarities. Sarah says that it is all about adapting and learning how each works as one is exposed to them, adjust, and dealing with it.

Regarding University, Sarah says that it’s very different here at Farmingdale from Germany. In Germany, you don’t really have to go to classes; attendance isn’t a factor in grades. There’s one exam at end of semester to pass for each class, and the tests are hard. Classes have about 200 people too, which highly contrasts from Farmingdale’s class sizes. Sarah says that in Germany, it’s normal, and students are usually anonymous to teachers. Here, she feels comfortable and able to talk to professors easily and on a more personal basis.

Here at Farmingdale, Sarah is taking law classes- The law classes here are for Business students,   so they’re very introductory. For example, she’s taking Business Law, Business Organization Law, and Environmental Law. Since Sarah already studied law for two years, it’s been an easy semester in her luck!

As far as challenging experiences as an international student, she hasn’t had many. Sarah’s been familiar to area. Since she doesn’t live on campus, though, she doesn’t get whole American dorm experience and it’s not as easy to meet people, but she’s grateful for the new experience of small classes and easy interaction professors on campus.

Her hope for the future are to finish her Bachelor’s degree in Germany, try to come back to the United States to live and to go to Law School. She’ll be taking the Law Admission Test this year, and depending on her score, she can decide which law school to apply to.

Sarah’s experience abroad has helped with her personal and professional life indefinitely. She said it shaped her personality and makes her more open minded and outgoing, makes it easier to talk to people. After traveling, she feels at home anywhere she is- not because of the place, but because of the people.  She wants to travel more and at some point would like to go to Southeast Asia to teach English.

Sarah sure has an exciting future going for her. Because of travel, her mind is open and she has many ideas for her future. Ultimately, she would like a home base since she would like a family and kids. There’s nothing like home!