Fifty years ago, a person's world was the town in which he or she lived, or maybe with luck, the state. But today, as business is done between countries with a quick click of the mouse, the world is expanding.

And the next generation of professionals better be prepared.

Seventeen-year-old Sarah Nixon thought her recent trip to Japan would just be a fun idea to get away and see the world. She never imagined it would help her on her college applications.

Nixon is a senior at Bishop Dwenger High School. She has aspirations of being a writer, but is unsure where she wants to go to college next year. In keeping her options open, she's applied to a couple of schools, but neither she nor her mother predicted the schools would ask if she has traveled abroad - but they're glad she did.

“It was just something I wanted to see for myself and experience,” Nixon said about her one-month trip last summer, through Indiana's 4-H program. “I guess I wanted to see things from a different perspective.”

During Nixon's time in Japan, she lived with a family, and as she described it, spent “day-to-day life” with them.

It sounds simple, but Jenny Weatherford, IPFW international programs director, said it could make all the difference for students in their studies and, ultimately, in life.

“Students who have been on study abroad do, indeed, usually have a much more comprehensive view on international issues than students who haven't been,” she said. “On a more personal level, students very often say that they gain confidence from studying abroad and that they come to know themselves in ways that they haven't before.”

For Diane Zimmanck, now a senior at IPFW, the decision to go back to school after 35 years was an easy one.

Upon her return, she took up a general studies major, allowing her to use previously earned credits, and set out to be a “typical” college student - vying for homecoming queen and all. But her future didn't completely come into focus until a study-abroad trip grew into a passion for helping the women of Turkey.

“I was moved by this experience, seriously,” said Zimmanck, 54, of her trip, which included seeing shelters for battered women there.

She saw a lot of disorganization and disconnect between the shelters, and from there, she found a new purpose.

Zimmanck knew it wasn't going to be as easy as just packing her bags and moving to Turkey. No, she needed funding.

A fellowship may give her what she needs.

The Fulbright Fellowship is a program that offers funding to individuals for opportunities such as teaching English or, in Zimmanck's case, developing a research project in a foreign country.

“I think (the shelters in Turkey) could benefit from finding ways to work together,” she said. And if she received the fellowship, she would spend nine months there developing those methods.

Zimmanck has spent time abroad teaching English in China, but when the Beijing Olympics began, she was asked to leave the country. They were “cleaning up” the country, they told her, and she needed to go.

Back in the U.S., she had to start a new life, and college and her trips abroad showed her how to accomplish that.

If she receives the fellowship - which she won't know until spring - she will work with the shelters and study for her master's degree in Turkey. It's the perfect plan, considering she wants to work in international human rights and law.

Weatherford, who is trying to urge more IPFW students to apply for these fellowships, said this abroad experience could help Zimmanck achieve her dream.

“Employers nowadays are looking for people with international experience, so having been on study abroad is definitely an advantage when students go to look for a job,” Weatherford said.

Eldin Hasic, a 21-year-old senior at IPFW, already knew his international experience could help him get a job. Now he just needs more of it.

Hasic is also applying for a Fulbright Fellowship, but he isn't planning a research project. He is going the route that is more popular under this fellowship - teaching English in a foreign country.

Hasic, who grew up in Bosnia, hopes to take his existing international credentials - which he hopes to add to with a trip to Macedonia where he will teach English - and turn it into a job with the State Department as a foreign service officer.

“It's not something you know whether it's going to work out at all,” he said. “Generally, the idea is to build more international experience.”

When he started school he had no idea what career to pursue. But just like Zimmanck, a trip abroad opened his eyes to the possibilities.

“Those kinds of experiences really focused me on what I wanted to do,” he said.

Like Zimmanck, he will have to wait until spring to find out if he will receive a fellowship.

“I think (I have a pretty good shot), but I'm trying to have a Plan B,” he said.