Hi! My name is Russell. I’m a Biomedical Engineering major from West Branch,  Iowa. I studied abroad the summer after my freshman year in Hong Kong, at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST). My time abroad was undoubtedly the most memorable two months of my life, and I’d like to share   some of my experiences with you here.   Before I went abroad, I remember feeling varying combinations of  apprehensiveness and enthusiasm. On one hand,  I was nervous - this was my first time ever traveling outside of the US,  and I knew zero Cantonese. But I also felt a feeling of excitement growing inside of me. Excitement to experience what life is like in a   country so different than the U.S., and excitement for all the adventures that I imagined having.  

My name is Juan Martin. I am a proud Latino and I am the first in my family to go to college. I wanted to show my family what a college education, what a student from the Tippie College of Business, has the abilities to do: at home and abroad. I spent the entirety of my summer interning for a French financial institution in the heart of Paris. This was also the first time I had ever been outside of the country and the first time I could truly learn and immerse myself into another country’s culture.

My name is Nazira Coury and I am a fourth-year student majoring in International Relations, and minoring in Latin American Studies and Arabic. During the summer of 2017, I had the incredible opportunity to study abroad for nine weeks in the very hot, but very beautiful city of Fes, Morocco. As a first generation student, I am the first person in my family to go to college and now, I am also the first in my family to have studied abroad.

Study Abroad will host an information session on its Studio Art Centers International (SACI) program in Florence, Italy, on Friday, March 2, from 12:30-1:30 p.m. in 71 Schaeffer Hall. 

Study Abroad will host an information session on its Wells College: Lorenzo de Medici program in Florence, Italy, on Wednesday, February 28, from 2:30-3:30 p.m. in 1117 University Capitol Centre. 

At 5 p.m. today at MERGE, archivists, historians, and scholars will discuss the importance of archives in preserving cultural history during World Canvass: Against Amnesia — Archives, Evidence, and Social Justice.

The UI’s 16 Fulbright students rank it No. 15th nationally among research universities — its highest ever placement, tying it with Stanford and Columbia universities, according to The Chronicle of Higher Education’s new rankings released this week. It demonstrates marked and continued improvement over its placement at No. 30 last year and No. 117 five years ago.

For the third year in a row, the university will host up-and-coming professionals from Africa.

The University of Iowa has again been named a top producer of Fulbright students—this time for 2017–18, with 16 recipients—marking the third consecutive year the university achieved the elite ranking.

Two University of Iowa undergraduates have been awarded the prestigious Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship, sponsored by the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, to study or intern abroad this summer.