26 Jun 5 Stars Who Studied Abroad

It doesn’t matter what career you plan to pursue in the future, study abroad can enhance not only your personal knowledge, but also your appeal to future employers. Here are 5 people at the top of their game who started it all by spending time overseas.

5) Bill Murray   

If the list starts with Bill Murray, you know it’s going to be pretty epic. One of the most beloved, respected, and eccentric actors of the past 50 years, Bill didn’t want to rest on his acting laurels. Instead he spent a full 4 years studying philosophy and history in Paris. Magnifique!

4) Anderson Cooper

Everyone’s favorite blue-eyed reporter didn’t get to be a primary-anchor for CNN by hanging onto the coattails of his fabulously famous mother (Gloria Vanderbilt), he did all the leg-work himself. Starting out early, Anderson first studied abroad as a precocious high school senior (!!) in South Africa. But this wasn’t enough for the man who would go on to report from hundreds of locations all over the world. Cooper would follow up his S.A. study with a full year at the University of Hanoi in Vietnam.

3) JK Rowling

Before the woman who brought us Harry Potter could create her own worlds, she needed to travel the one we all live in.  In order to complete her degree in French and the Classics at Exeter, Rowling spent a semester studying in Paris. Since writers write what they know, it doesn’t take magic to figure out what inspired Fleur Delacour and the Beauxbatons Academy, does it?

2) Psy

Unless you’ve lived in a deep underwater cave for the past 2 years, you’ve heard of Korean pop-sensation Psy. In fact, we’re willing to bet good money you’ve tried to dance ‘Gangnam Style’ at least once. (Don’t lie, you know it counts even if no one saw) What you may not know is that Psy was a study abroad student at both Boston University AND Berklee School of Music before he returned to his home country to write the ear worm we’ve all been infected with.

1) Pope Francis

Time’s Person of the Year 2013 does seem legitimately wise about the ways of the world, and there’s a good reason. Yes, before he was Pope, he was a Cardinal, and before that he’d spent many years as a priest, but way back when, Pope Francis was just a grad student, leaving his home country of Argentina to pursue his philosophy studies in Frankfurt, Germany. So what are you waiting for? Get out there, study abroad, and someday you, too, could take over the world!