Florencia is a graduating Senior at Sonoma State majoring in Communications. She has traveled to several different countries, and spent a year studying abroad in Spain. She is originally from San Francisco.
Her Campus: What has been your favorite memory at SSU?
Florencia Hasson: Some of my favorite memories at SSU would probably have to be playing volleyball for the Sonoma State Club team my freshman and sophomore year. Our tournaments in Vegas and Nationals were wild. The competition was incredibly fun and the festivities after the games were a blast. There were around 2,000 plus athletes; men and women, from universities across the country all coming together to compete and have an amazing time.
HC: What types of things have you been involved in during your time in college?
FL: As I mentioned before I played volleyball on the club team for SSU before leaving to study abroad in Madrid my junior year. I volunteered for sometime tutoring kids at one of the elementary schools here in Rohnert Park a while back and was part of KSUN for a semester. Since I came back from Spain I’ve been involved with the SSU STAR Newspaper and working two internships at an online marketing start-up in Santa Rosa and translating articles from Spanish to English and visa versa for the Press Democrat.
HC: What is the craziest thing that happened while you were studying abroad?
FL: I guess the craziest PG thing that happened to me abroad was going to Morocco. It was truly an eye opening experience and very different from any other place I’d ever been to. I cannot image how different the trip would have been if I hadn’t gone with male friends. I was constantly reminded of my status for being a women in their society and the limited liberties that I had. I had one of my friends tried to be bought off for 800 camels.
HC: Where has been your favorite place you have traveled?
FL: Everyone always asks me where my favorite place I traveled to was and I always say the same thing – it’s hard to say. It’s a pretty neck in neck triple tie between Paris, Lisbon and Amsterdam. I liked them all for different reasons. France as a whole was probably my favorite country, with Paris and the south of France, it really couldn’t get better than that. Lisbon was an amazing city that strangely resembled San Francisco with a red suspension bridge, cable cars and crazy hills. Having grown up in the City I felt nostalgic in Lisbon. I wasn’t expecting to like Lisbon or Portugal as much as I did. I’d say it’s super underrated and that could be one of the reasons I liked it so much. No one really thinks to go there right off the bat and I think that’s part of what made it special. Spain of course has so much to see and is phenominal country as well, so in all honesty I really can’t say where my favorite place was.
HC: What was the biggest difference between Spain and the US?
FL: God… biggest difference… I guess what I missed the most from the US was the food. In Madrid you really needed to know where the good places were to eat because if not, chances were you weren’t going to enjoy your meal too much. I missed the variety of amazing Asian style cuisines we have here and just the variety of foods in general. I don’t miss Spanish food, though when it was good it was really good but I wouldn’t change it for the tons of different foods we have here. Also frozen food wasn’t a thing there, which I think is good. It forced us all to get very creative with our cooking and I’m grateful for it. Never realized just how easy we have it here, laziness is enforced, and our frozen food aisles at grocery stores are filled with endless possibilities.
HC: What is your advice for students thinking about studying abroad?
FL: My advice for any future students thinking to study abroad is – DO IT! And don’t you dare only go for just a semester, you can’t get the full experience if you do. You’re too caught up in traveling to other countries that you don’t get to benefit from the country that you’re living in too. You really need a year to be able to soak it all in and for your life to begin to feel natural and routine like, and then just when you start to feel settled in its time to go home. Also live with as many international students as you can! I lived in an apartment with 8 other students from France, Spain and Italy and we felt like family by the end of it – sharing recipes, traditions, games, life stories and memories. I love them all so dearly.
HC: What are general plans for after graduation?
FL: As of now, graduation is on the May 21st and on the 30th I’ll be hopping on a plane to Israel. I will be doing an internship there all summer working with a record label in Tel Aviv that works with artists around the world, planning the tours and concerts, doing marketing for them etc. I am so so excited to begin the next chapter of my life and I’m hoping that this internship will open the door for new opportunities in the future. After that I have no plans – hopefully find a job, save some money and then move back to Europe. Still need to decide where though, but I guess that will all become clearer in the future.
HC: What is your advice for incoming freshman?
FL: My advice for incoming freshmen is to please, please take advantage of the opportunities SSU has to offer. It took me a while to realize that there was a community here focused on things other than partying and socializing. That can be all super fun but at the end of the day what are you really left with? I don’t regret anything from my college career at SSU, but I wish I would have done the things I knew interested me long before, such as joining the STAR. I’m just glad that I finally did and everything has worked out for the right reasons.