A demanding football schedule left Jake Gervase (BBA, finance and management ’18) doubtful he could incorporate a study abroad experience into his undergraduate career—that is, until he learned about global spring break opportunities. Gervase jumped at the opportunity to travel to Cuba through the International Entrepreneurship and Culture short-term study abroad course led by UI faculty members Dimy Doresca (UI Pappajohn Entrepreneurial Center) and Jim Dreier (UI School of Music). Gervase plans to use his fifth year of eligibility to continue his UI football career during the 2018-2019 academic year. While doing so, he will be pursuing a graduate degree in sport and recreation management. We caught up with Gervase recently to learn more about his study abroad experience in Cuba.

Curious about what it's like to study abroad, but aren't sure where to begin? Get your questions answered and kick-start your global experience at the upcoming fall study abroad fair! 

It’s 4 a.m. Omani time and I just finished suhoor, a.k.a. pre-sunrise breakfast. With some encouragement from Muslim friends back in the U.S., I have dedicated myself to abstaining from eating or drinking from sun up to sun down, as the whole Muslim world does during the Ramadan holy month.

Some of the best experiences come out of nowhere—but you have to be there first.

After three days of orientation, 18 hours on planes, and two hours driving, I am finally in Ibri, Sultanate of Oman!  This summer, I will be studying intensive Arabic (both Modern Standard and Omani Dialect) at the Noor Majan Institute after  being awarded a Critical Language Scholarship through the U.S. State Department.

From a competitive pool of more than 100 applicants around the country, four UI students have been selected by IES Abroad to share their unique, first-hand study abroad experiences with the world as IES Correspondents for Summer 2018:

Undergraduate management student Anna Kroeger recently studied abroad at the University of Cape Town in Cape Town, South Africa. To help fund her study abroad experience, Kroeger applied for and received an IES Abroad Scholarship as well as a scholarship from the Nicole M. Johnston International Fund through the Tippie College of Business. Learn more about Kroeger’s study abroad experience below.

At home in Des Moines, I drive almost everywhere I go. In Iowa City, I walk more, but maybe only a few miles each day. While living in Prague, I walk around 7 miles every day, and always more when I travel on the weekends. My record in one day is sixteen miles in Paris! My feet do feel pretty destroyed after four months of this lifestyle, but the constant movement and exercise is so refreshing (and helps shed off some of that weekly gelato).

This year the College of Education Center for Evaluation and Assessment conducted an evaluation of the faculty-led study abroad program offered through UI International Programs in the 2017-18 Winterim Session. Students who participated were asked to complete a pre-trip survey in December and a post-trip survey when they returned in January.

Travel can be stressful. Foreign languages can be stressful. Bus schedules can be stressful. New places can be stressful. This semester I’ve realized that traveling isn’t always the sunshine and rainbows that we see on social media or that people like to highlight. Sometimes it takes a couple mental breakdowns in a bathroom stall in an airport to get to that point. If you can’t tell, I speak from experience.

Knowing myself, I should have anticipated breaking my phone. When it happened, I really regretted bringing my old phone or an iPod touch so that I wouldn’t be without a device for a long period of time. Electronics are very expensive to buy in Uruguay and it is close to impossible to get electronics shipped here from the States. It would have been much easier if I had brought one just in case.

A famous photojournalist has staked out the world as his beat.