When leaving college, students often have a hard time trying to figure out what’s next. Senior Chelsea Reid has her plan. When she leaves school, she will be preparing to leave for Lyon, France as an au pair. An au pair is someone who travels to another country to live with a family and help provide childcare without being considered a full-time nanny. They receive free room and board and work for the family.

“I’m not ready to be in the ‘real-world’ yet, and I always wanted to up and move somewhere new, but didn’t know where that’d be,” Reid said. “I loved traveling this past summer on the study abroad program in Scotland and I’m most excited about traveling this next year.”

Reid is an education major and wanted to find a way to use her talents in new ways before jumping into the education system. Reid said she does have fears about leaving for France.

“While it’s all very exciting and thrilling, it’s always terrifying starting over somewhere, but especially where you don’t know the language,” Reid said. “I’m a little directionally challenged, so getting lost worries me a little.”

The process for becoming an au pair involves actively seeking families and trying to connect with people of another culture. This means a person must be up front about all things involving beliefs.

“I used the website, AuPair-World.net and created a profile describing myself, my experiences, why I’m wanting to be an au pair and what I’m looking for in a family,” Reid said. “After that, I browsed families that created profiles and looked for families that I seemed compatible with and contacted them. The family I ended up choosing brought up religion first, and they’re Protestant. They asked a lot about family values and want someone to be a good role model for their kids, which I really liked.”

Junior Hannah Perry attends the same Bible study as Reid and has heard a lot about the opportunity she is experiencing.

“I know that she (Reid) has been very prayerful about her future and it is really cool to see that this has worked out for her,” Perry said, “I know that she is very excited and it will be awesome to see how her ten months abroad goes.”

Reid will spend almost a year with a family and will spend time assisting in childcare and their education.