Ways to Travel the World While in College

BY SYLVIA KOHL

Student life is definitely one of the most exciting periods in one’s life. From meeting new people, widen your knowledge, enhancing your skills, learning new things to visiting new places, students really have the whole world on their palm.

When talking about new places, it’s widespread for students to travel the world while in college. Some of them will decide to have a gap year and travel during these 12 months while others will visit new destinations when they finish their semester. Whenever you choose to travel, it will always be a good time as traveling is one of the most rewarding things in life.

It’s one thing to have dreams of traveling the world and another to find ways of achieving this. If you’re one of those students who are looking forward to exploring new places, learning about new cultures and making friends from all over the world, we bring you ideas on how to travel the world while in college.

Student discounts

Let’s be honest, as a student, you probably have a very limited budget. Sure, you can find part-time jobs and earn money while studying but that money will most likely be spent on some other more vital things such as books, food, courses, etc. But, if you are eager to travel the world despite your budget, we have some excellent news for you: You can! There are plenty of websites that provide student discounts on train, bus and airline tickets on certain occasions.

Subscribe to their newsletter as these sites also tend to have additional discounts for those who are part of their community. Also, search for other student discounts that are not related to travel. After all, you will need to save money, and the best way to do it is by having a discount on anything you can find, from groceries, restaurants, cinemas, etc.

Internship abroad

Whatever you might be studying, you will always find internship options abroad. You will probably not be able to find options in every country in the world, but most of the studies provide their students with plenty of international internship opportunities. Ask your professors or university staff that is in charge of these internships to help you with your application. As many students have the same dream of combining their course with traveling, you will need all the help to get that opportunity.

Before you go on your internship abroad, contact the company or organization where you’ll be an intern and ask them all the information you’re interested in. Also, try to learn as much you can about this new destination, which will be your home in the next few months. If that country speaks a foreign language, it won’t hurt to enroll in the course to learn a language a bit.

Working and traveling

Wouldn’t it be great if you could travel to an unexplored country and earn money as well? Luckily, you can easily do it as there are many organizations that will help you find a job and ensure you have plenty of time to travel around. This option is favorite among those students who would love to travel more, but their financial situation doesn’t allow them to do it as frequently as they want. So, choosing to work and travel will bring you two tremendous benefits: money and journey.

For such an adventure, you will need to be very careful with your packing. You will need to bring a lot of things with you, from your clothes for the job to your equipment for exploring the country during the weekends. To ensure you don’t forget a thing, and you stay organized during this journey, consider getting luggage organizers. They are a lifesaver for travelers who are always on the move as you will be if you choose to work and travel.

Conclusion

 If you were thinking for a while now you would like to go and explore the world, consider trying out one of the options provided in this article. Don’t wait for a better moment as student years are the best time to travel around, make friendships that will last forever, and learn things you will never learn in college. Start packing and prepare yourself for the best adventure of your life!

Sylvia Kohl is an IT teacher with more than 8 years of professional experience. Her main spheres of interest are e-education and she convinced that learning process doesn’t stop after years in school and university.

Why Campus VPNs Are Not Enough to Ensure Privacy

By Melissa Burns

A VPN (Virtual Private Network) can be described as a tunnel between you and the Internet. It encrypts the data that passes through it, hides your location, masks your identity and protects you from many dangers of the Web. These days, it is a good idea to use a VPN even if you don’t worry about privacy all that much – it is just safer.

It is particularly important for students, as in college you do a lot of work on the Internet, and a good portion of this work is done in public places: on campus, in libraries, on the go. You need extra protection if you access the Internet not at home, especially if you use public Wi-Fi. Some colleges do offer their own campus VPNs, but don’t be too eager to rely on them – there is a number of reasons why you should consider getting a commercial VPN on top of them.

Campus VPNs have aren’t configured for your convenience

Campus VPNs exist for very specific purposes, and making life convenient for students isn’t one of them. Usually, they serve to provide access to various licensed databases that are limited for the use by your college’s staff and students (article indexes, electronic journals, library databases, etc.). In fact, quite often you are outright obliged to use them – as a security precaution and an easy way to control who gets access to the university’s resources. This means that they aren’t built for your convenience. For example, some are available only on campus, others only off-campus. If you use them, it means that you remain unprotected half the time, and it will be where you are most vulnerable – while using public Wi-Fi hotspots that are notoriously dangerous.

Campus VPNs let others decide what you can do on the Internet

On-campus VPNs often limit your access to specific websites and services. Even if you don’t realize it right away, you may suddenly find yourself incapable of using a website or a service simply because it is deemed inappropriate. If you want both protection and complete freedom in what websites you get to visit, consider taking a look at VPN overviews and choosing an independent VPN that will suit your needs.

Campus VPNs don’t protect you from offline identity theft threats

This one concerns not only campus VPNs but VPNs in general. Nevertheless, students who believe that their college already took care about protecting their privacy and do not want to lift a finger to get a VPN of their own are more likely to be complacent in other security matters. One of them is that even a genuinely effective campus VPN does nothing to protect you from offline threats to your identity, which are often much more simple than we are used to believe. For example, an ATM company servicing your college may equip its ATMs with top-notch security measures, but you still have to apply your own common sense to protect yourself from low-tech fraud methods like shoulder surfing. The same goes for many other situations: you should be careful when you use your devices in public places, for you never know who watches over your shoulder when you input a password to your bank account or social media.

Campus VPNs don’t let you connect from another region

One of the most popular functions of VPNs allows you to appear to be in a different geographical location than where you really are. It can be done for a variety of reasons: for example, some websites and services are region locked and may be inaccessible from your real location using normal means. Naturally, your campus VPN won’t give you such an opportunity – if you use it, you will have to connect to these websites from your university network.

Campus VPNs often don’t allow you to use torrents

While torrenting doesn’t automatically equal illegal practice, it is commonly perceived as such. Therefore, many campus VPNs block you from using torrents by default or even don’t allow you to visit torrent websites. This is why if you want to torrent freely and protect your privacy while doing it, an independent VPN is in order.

Campus VPNs aren’t exactly concerned about your privacy

Campus VPNs are primarily designed to protect the university’s assets, not your privacy. This is why most (if not all) of them keep logs of your activity on the Internet, which can be accessed if needed. Look for independent VPNs that don’t keep logs if you really value your online privacy.

Campus VPNs often cannot be used everywhere

When you deal with campus VPNs, you don’t have any choice – it is a take it or leave it situation. They decide what services to give you, and you have no say in it. Some are only available on campus, others can only be used off-campus. Whatever the case, your protection will be lacking – you will have to spend part of the time open to all the dangers the Internet has in store. This includes the time you need protection most of all – when you connect to public Wi-Fi hotspots. In addition, campus VPNs are sometimes limited in terms of which and how many devices you can use with them.

As you can see, campus VPNs are far from being an optimal solution for your online privacy and security needs. Fortunately, there are plenty of independent alternatives to choose from.

Melissa Burns graduated from the faculty of Journalism of Iowa State University. Nowadays she is an entrepreneur and independent journalist. Follow her @melissaaburns or contact at burns.melissaa@gmail.com