Despite being abroad for so much of her college career, Lucas was still able to connect with her family and classmates regularly.
“This isn’t the age of messenger pigeons and such. A good FaceTime goes a long way,” said Lucas. “Being abroad actually made me talk to my parents more, and I carried that over to the rest of my time in college.
“In terms of the campus community, I’d keep up with friends and social media to see what was going on. I wasn’t afraid of how studying abroad was going to take away from my impact on campus, like my leadership. If there’s something you want to do, you don’t have to let geographic barriers stop you from that.”
During her stint in Korea, Lucas kept up with her involvement with the African American Cultural Resource Center, messaging with other on-campus leaders and keeping up with group members. She also worked with the AACRC staff to run for the Miss Kuamka competition, which occurs during the beginning of the spring semester.
Lucas is also a member of multiple organizations in DAAP, including the Sustainable Fashion Initiative and DAAP:PUB, a digital media platform focusing on art, design and interdisciplinary practices run by students. During her international co-op experience in Chile in fall 2019, she continued editing for DAAP:PUB — she’d get stories sent over email, edit them and send them back for review.
In the summer of 2019, Lucas had the opportunity to work with a multi-national team as a member of UC International’s summer internship program. Focused on marketing and communications, the internship was an excellent marriage of Lucas’s skills in marketing and expertise with study abroad.
“Honestly, it was such a great experience,” said Lucas. “One of my favorite parts about studying abroad is when I’m coming back, and people asking where I’ve been, what it was like. I love sharing the resources. Getting to do that on a more legit professional level was cool.
“I also enjoyed working with the team, especially since I was preparing to do the international co-op. It got me prepared to work with a team of people from different backgrounds and helped me realize how cultural perspective plays a role into how you get your work done.”
One of the intern team’s final products was a commercial for study abroad, part of a campaign to encourage students who don’t traditionally go abroad to take steps outside of their comfort zone. Lucas is featured throughout the beginning sequence — in essence, the “face” of study abroad at UC. According to her, the quick minute-long video is inspiring future travelers.
“I get to see my face on the TUC wall whenever I walk by — that’s pretty cool,” she noted. “One of my coworkers saw me in the video and told me it helped her decide to go abroad. That was our whole purpose! Marketing at its finest.”