When Isabelle Hueller ‘26 (pictured on the right) first saw this subject line in an email from NC State University, she almost marked it as spam. It sounded a bit too good to be true. The promise? Two years at NC State, followed by two years at ICADE Business School in Madrid.

As she quickly learned, the reality was far more intense than the simple slogan suggested. Who knew that taking courses in Spanish would be 10 times more difficult? Whatever the case, she arrived in Madrid feeling somewhat unprepared and out of place. Yet, somehow, she felt it was the right path for her.

Her first semester in Madrid was a bit humbling. She realized she needed to put her ego aside and dig into this experience! With that change and a lot of determination, Isabelle successfully completed three academic semesters at ICADE Business School (all in Spanish) and a second, six-month internship in Barcelona.

In May, the hard work paid off. She officially graduated with a bachelor’s in business administration with a concentration in marketing from NC State’s Poole College of Management and a bachelor’s in international business from Universidad Pontificia Comillas’ ICADE School of Business.

This resilience carried into her professional life as well. In summer 2024, Isabelle completed her first internship with Boomi, a technology firm based in Philadelphia. During her last semester in Spain, she continued at Boomi while based in Barcelona, taking a deeper dive into Global B2B Social Media Marketing. In August, she will start full-time with Boomi in their Barcelona offices.

In hindsight, she shared that she couldn’t be more grateful that she took a chance on that “spam” email four years ago. Was this entire experience sunshine and rainbows? Not really, but the challenges are exactly what made the four years so rewarding.