Missouri State University
Acacia Boerboom

Acacia Boerboom

  • Major: Communication
  • High School: Lincoln
  • Hometown: Lincoln, Mo.

Experiencing Spanish culture

Acacia Boerboom helps others follow their dreams of studying abroad.

Boerboom is a junior at Missouri State University studying intercultural communications with a minor in marketing.

She's originally from Lincoln, Missouri and moved to Springfield to pursue her undergraduate degree.

With her mom being from Mexico, and her dad being from the U.S., she dreamed of studying abroad to improve her Spanish speaking skills and to also explore the medieval architecture that Spain has to offer.

Change of plans

She finally had the opportunity to go abroad for the spring 2020 semester, but then the unexpected happened.

COVID-19 quickly became a pandemic that spread across the globe. Her and many other students from around the world were required to cut short their study away experiences.

“There is always a solution to life’s problems and you’ll come out stronger in the end because of it.

Our host mom actually had us wearing masks before anybody else did in our city. At first we thought it was silly, until there was one case, two cases, five cases,” Boerboom said.

As the news slowly trickled in, Acacia knew that what was happening was about to affect her program and her ability to do everything that she had hoped to do.

While everyone was busy starting the process of looking for flights to return home, she decided to go ahead and have one last adventure before leaving.

“On the day before my program cancelled, I decided to visit all the places I could while my roommates stayed home and packed.”

One beautiful place in particular was Montjuïc Castle.

Over the next couple days, as travel bans were being put in place and lockdowns began occurring, Boerboom became one of the thousands of individuals who were returning home to the United States.

Serving as a Global Ambassador

After the transatlantic flight and then spending six hours going through customs in Chicago, she then still had a job interview with Missouri State’s Study Away Programs.

Through all of this and despite being exhausted, she still aced her interview and now works in the office as a Global Ambassador.

Even though her time in Spain was abbreviated due to COVID-19, she is already making plans to return to Spain to continue her travels and pursue her master’s degree in Barcelona.

Until then, you can find her in the Plaster Student Union room 209 assisting other students pursue their dreams of studying abroad.