Preparing for a trip abroad may have just gotten easier. Students and staff at the University of Iowa requiring visas, passport renewals, or other travel document services will now be offered these services at a discounted rate. The Committee on Institutional Cooperation has signed a contract with CIBT Visa Services to provide passport and visa services to the UI and other Institutional Cooperation institutions — which include other schools in the Big Ten.

Iowa City ranked seventh in the Peace Corps’ 2015 listing of the country’s top volunteer-producing metro areas per capita. This is the first time the Iowa City metro area (defined as Washington and Johnson counties) reached the top 10 on the list of currently-serving Peace Corps volunteers.

Looking to make your study abroad experience a bit more affordable? Apply for the Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship! The Gilman scholarship is open to U.S. citizen undergraduate students who are receiving Federal Pell Grant funding to participate in study and intern abroad programs worldwide.

Congratulations to our very own India Winterim study abroad program, recipient of the prestigious 2016 Institute of International Education (IIE) Andrew Heiskell Award for Innovation in International Education. This year marks the 10-year anniversary of the India Winterim program, with over 1,000 students and faculty participating since its inauguration. Geography professor and India Winterim creator Raj Rajagopal and International Programs' Assistant Provost Doug Lee will accept the award at a ceremony in Davis, California, in March.

Hello everyone! First off, I would like to thank everyone who is reading my blog, and hope you find my posts somewhat entertaining and interesting as I document my times here in Scotland. For my first entry, I’m going to talk about getting around the city of Edinburgh, which has been quite different than my time in Iowa City.

“Tell me about a time when you were faced with a difficult situation and how you resolved it,” an interviewer might ask you. Or perhaps, “Give me an example of a moment when you were thrown out of your comfort zone and how you dealt with it.” These questions can be daunting for even the most qualified job applicant. But the truth is, your interviewer is probably expecting some pretty stereotypical answers: You took a difficult class outside of your major and, by some force of will, ended up getting a decent grade. You took part in a group project that you essentially had to complete on your own because your partners were lazy. Yawn. This isn’t going to help you stand out. But, studies show that a study abroad experience might. Not only will a story about tackling the language barrier during your time in Spain have your interviewer going from apathetic to absorbed – it can also showcase all the skills that make a study abroad experience truly valuable.

If you ask me, “How was Morocco?” or any similar iteration of the question, my scripted response will be something along the lines of, “It was great! I learned a lot, and I loved being there, but I’m glad to be home.” This answer, or whichever variation of it bores me the least, satisfies ninety-eight percent of the frustrating, albeit well-meaning, questioners.

While Abby Restko was in college at the University of Iowa, she embarked on a study abroad experience in Venice, Italy. Restko, who was a majoring in marketing with a minor in art, knew then that she should have a jewelry store that offered Murano glass locally. So she opened Glassando in a small space in the Old Capitol Mall just a week after graduation in 2005.

Hey Everyone! Well, my semester abroad has come to an end and I am back in the U.S. As much as I miss Nagasaki and all of the new friends I made during my time abroad, it was still great to be home for Christmas with the family. Today, for my last blog, I thought I would tell you a little about the holiday season in Japan and then give some farewell words of wisdom…at least my kind of wisdom.

Yu Hua, considered by many to be China’s greatest living author, begins his remarks with a joke. Brothers, a novel he calls his most important, has received critical acclaim abroad but encountered mixed reviews at home. International critics, under the pretense that Chinese critiques of the book were government-sponsored, flock furiously to the novel’s defense. In fact, Yu Hua sheepishly concludes, the negative assessments were offered spontaneously and freely by the Chinese public.

Have you ever considered interning abroad? International Programs and the Pomerantz Career Center will co-sponsor a presentation with Amy Bowes on the benefits of an international internships and how students can go about arranging to do it. Amy Bowes is the Advisor for International Internships in the office of Study Abroad.

Hey Everyone! Well…It’s about that time. I am currently preparing to head back to the U.S. However, before I do, I thought I’d do something a little different and make a video giving you all a tour of where I’ve been living for the last few months, my host parent’s house. I thought you may appreciate it a little more than just a few pictures and me talking about it.