Stephanie McClendon
College: Arizona State University- Accounting
Hometown: Peoria, Arizona
Number of Countries Visited: 14
Number 1 Travel Destination: Baños, Ecuador. It’s just a small town in the mountains. Lots of adventure sports just stuck in the middle of the Andes.
Number One Bucketlist Destination: Thailand
Her Study Abroad Program:
I actually didn’t study abroad, but I’ve spent a lot of time traveling on my own and that’s pretty much what landed me here. I thought about studying abroad in college, and Florence actually would have been my choice, but I ended up fast tracking my degree and finishing online after moving to Chicago. That’s where I’ve been for the last 6 years.
Why did you decide to come work with FlorenceForFun?
I’ve done a lot of traveling. My job in the US didn’t allow me to do that as much as I wanted to. I did a big Europe trip in March of this past year for 3 weeks. It was a solo trip all by myself, and honestly it was really eye opening. When I got back to the states I felt like I wasn’t where I was supposed to be any more, and I felt unhappy with my job. I just felt that I needed to make the move to Europe, and particularly Florence, while I was young.
A friend of a friend told me about this job. I applied on a whim, not thinking much of it. I was offered the position, and told my job in Chicago I was leaving. I packed up and came over here to see what would happen.
I’ve always been adventurous, and I want to experience as many parts of the world as I can. I feel like there are so many people just content and closed-minded, and I think that the US is great, and I’ve been fortunate enough to have seen most of it. There are so many other places in the world that are great also, and I want to be able to see them
Her advice to Study Abroaders:
Have fun! Take every opportunity to travel everywhere and experience everything that you can. Make sure you take full advantage of this once in a lifetime opportunity that you’ve been given a lot of people will never have
