Allison Kindig is a senior from Cedar Rapids, Iowa, studying industrial engineering, global health studies and business administration at the University of Iowa. Two years ago, she was the recipient of a Stanley scholarship to travel to Cameroon. Since then, she addressed economical solar energy as a UI College of Engineering Grand Challenge Scholar. This fall, Kindig was named the 2014 Iowa Homecoming Queen. Read on to learn more about Allison's journey throughout her college experience.

Drew Soloski graduated from the University of Iowa in 2007 with a dual degree in Chinese language and literature and psychology. During his time at the UI, Drew studied abroad on the CIEE program in Nanjing and Beijing, China, which he credits as the “foundation of his major” and the reason for discovering his true passion: international business. He is currently an MBA/MA student at the Wharton School and the Joseph H. Lauder Institute of Management and International Studies in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

I spent the entirety of last weekend in Bath. The journey commenced around noon on Friday when my friend Juliette and I left the Norwich train station for London Liverpool Street. We originally intended to leave around 10:30 a.m., but complications arose and we missed our train. This incited a brief period of anxiety, but after a few minutes I was able to remind myself that the journey wasn't ruined or cancelled because of one small complication. To travel frequently means you have to be ready for anything to happen, because unfortunately not everything will run smoothly.

Study Abroad will host an information session on its popular summer Iowa Hispanic Institute program in Valladolid, Spain on Wednesday, February 18 from 4-5:00 p.m. in 1117 University Capitol Centre.

Study Abroad will host an international trivia night on Thursday, February 12 from 6:00-8:00 p.m. at The Mill in Iowa City. Returned study abroad students and interested friends are invited to join in for an evening of conversation and trivia. Pizza catered by the Mill will also be provided.

I have been in Spain for roughly two weeks and have spent 25% of that time lost. Maybe this is an exaggeration since many of my meanderings, as Tolkien might say, were spent with intention. However, this was definitely not true of my first day. My first experience of feeling misplaced was immediately upon arriving in Madrid. The second (third, fourth and fifth ad infinitim) have been in Bilbao, a clean and beautiful city whose streets seem to snake like tributaries of the Mississippi river even though I’ve been told by everyone who lives here “it’s so small it is impossible to get lost.” In every Spanish city I have visited so far I’ve found it very easy to lose my way, and the only difference between my first day and today is that now I do it on purpose.

I don’t know how to answer the questions you’ll ask me about being abroad for four months. You’ll ask if it was amazing, and then you will ask me if I miss it. And I will say there are a few things that I miss in particular – getting to see mountains every day, and I honestly miss hearing the Icelandic language. The landscape is surreal, so I miss that, too. What I could do without is missing my friends and family in the United States. But now I just miss the friends that I made abroad.

Getting off the plane at O’Hare was surreal. Was I really back in Chicago? Costa Rica felt like a dream and I had just suddenly awoken to the brisk winter of the Windy City. To be honest I wasn’t excited to be back, not as excited as I should have been or excited as my friends were. I had found a sense of happiness in Costa Rica that I was scared I would lose the moment I stepped back on to U.S. territory. But as I walked through the airport, I promised myself I would hold on to that happiness and optimism I had gained in Costa Rica and carry it with me wherever I went.

Students on the six-week summer Irish Writing Program program have the extraordinary opportunity not only to study the history and culture of Ireland through its literature, but also to begin the discovery of their own identities as writers. It’s an experience with transformative results for many. This is one of many short-term and faculty led programs that will be represented at this spring's Study Abroad Fair on Thursday, Jan 29.

My idea was to create the best study abroad creative writing program in the world. That sounds immodest but that was the goal, and I think we do offer an outstanding study abroad experience. It’s an undergraduate program with graduate level expectations. My secret (out now) was to always treat undergraduate students as if they were graduates. They have always done the job. I knew that the University of Iowa was considered number one in America for the writers’ workshop, and I knew we in Ireland had exceptionally talented literature and drama professors. Bringing together the best of both places made the program an instant success.

Location: Norwich. Time since arrival: One week. Status: Alive and thriving. I am in England.

Brad Merryman will tell you he has the best job in the world. After 25 years in the IT industry, he hung up his hat and volunteered in Costa Rica through the Peace Corps. Just a few short months after returning to the U.S., Merryman was honored to accept the Midwest Regional Manager position with the Peace Corps, where he now oversees the recruitment of volunteers throughout a region spanning 11 states.