Students studying abroad now have more resources to fend off feeling like a tourist in a foreign country while having the opportunity to build their resumes.

Café Abroad, a social networking Web site and magazine for study abroad students, hired Jessica Choromanski (senior-supply chain and information systems), last December for a managerial role as she studied abroad in Sydney, Australia. She said the Web site was not completed until July, but she worked with founder Dan Schwartzman, Class of 2005, during the semester to set up the Sydney page and complete the city guide.

"It was an incredible experience because I was there as it started and evolved over the early months," Choromanski said. "As I go on job interviews, recruiters are extremely interested in my internship since it's such a new idea."

Café Abroad offers internship opportunities with the company for college students traveling abroad, Schwartzman said. The positions available are travel journalists, regional managers and regional representatives.

Former study abroad students, Schwartzman and Mark Travers, a Cornell University alumnus, released the magazine Café Abroad InPRINT earlier this year. They came up with the idea after sharing their overseas experiences with one another while working at a small newspaper in New Jersey. Schwartzman studied in Brisbane, Australia, in 2002, and Travers studied in Barcelona and Madrid before graduating in 2006.

The magazine features original photographs and firsthand accounts of students' experiences while studying abroad. All of the magazine's content is student-generated, Schwartzman said, who also serves as the magazine's managing editor.

"We created the opportunities that we wanted that just didn't exist when we were overseas," Schwartzman said. "We could get professional writers or freelancers, but our whole project is about students."

Café Abroad InPRINT was first published in March and is now distributed to more than 300 universities nationwide, Schwartzman said.

"We're incrementally increasing it now," he said. "A lot of schools have requested special shipments for study abroad fairs and things like that."

The magazine's online counterpart, Cafeabroad.com, was launched in September and is meant to be a social networking site with a focus on journalism, Schwartzman said.

Café Abroad can help study abroad students interact with each other, he said.

"I hope that students can use the resources when they're in their fact-finding stages, trying to determine what city they want to go to," Schwartzman said. "And I hope current students will use the site to network with other students when they're overseas."

Studying abroad is a great experience for all students, Choromanski said.

"It's an incredible opportunity to travel and see the world," she said. "It gives you a deeper knowledge of a city, too. I know Sydney incredibly well, and it became a real home for me."

Jamison Morse (senior-architectural engineering) completed an architecture minor in Rome, Italy, last summer.

Morse said he would have used Café Abroad's resources if he had known about it.

"It's a good idea to network students studying abroad and find out their likes, dislikes and recommendations," Morse said.

Schwartzman said Café Abroad representatives will visit Penn State sometime this fall, but the exact date has not yet been determined.

Copies of Café Abroad are available at the Education Abroad office in 410 Boucke Building. The next issue is due out Nov. 1.