I'm based normally in New York, though I'm talking to you today from Toronto.

And I'm a graduate of York University, a double major in Political Science and Mass Communications.

I live in New York right now.

I was previously based in Paris, but I've had the pleasure of visiting several dozen countries over the course of my career with CBC.

And it really is just an excitement every single time to go and meet new people, to have a job that allows me to go and constantly be exposed to something different.

And it's that international experience that really helped out.

I can really trace everything back to the exchange I did in Stockholm, Sweden, as really being the thing that initiated it—was the rocket that started me traveling a lot more.

Up until that point I hadn't been all that far from Toronto.

I'd gone on the train out to Vancouver, I'd gone south into the U.S. a little bit, but nothing certainly across an ocean.

And doing that for the first time was really what changed things.

I then ended up working for CBC in London, went directly from Stockholm, came back, finished my degree in Toronto, but that travel bug hadn't gone anywhere.

And it's been very valuable.

In fact, every single time I've looked to change jobs or better my position, it's that international experience which has really given me the leg up.

They're a great opportunity, they're a great time in your life.

You may never be able to live abroad somewhere else again.

And there is a big difference between visiting somewhere and being physically embedded in the population of a place.

It really is fantastic.

I would encourage as many students as possible to do it, try to figure out a way to overcome any barriers there might be,

and it might turn out that those hurdles are actually a lot smaller than you think.