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.

UI student receives a Fulbright U.S. Student Program award for research to the Netherlands

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.

FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC) is a middle and high school based program in which teams of students design, build, and program robots. Under the direction of Rebecca Whitaker, the University of Iowa College of Engineering has been the Affiliate Partner organization for FIRST Tech Challenge since 2009. Through this partnership, the Iowa program has become known across the world as a leader with FIRST Tech Challenge. Due to the successes of FIRST Tech Challenge in Iowa through hosting large tournaments, Whitaker was invited to attend the FTC Championship in Bucharest, Romania. Her travel was funded, in part, by International Programs and the Stanley-UI Foundation Support Organization. Whitaker's reflections from her March 2018 trip to Bucharest are below.

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.

Consul General Hong Lei, a diplomat from the People’s republic of China, spoke on the merits of creating an economic bridge between China and the U.S. on Wednesday afternoon. He described the state of affairs between the two nations in his lecture, entitled “New developments in China and Sino-U.S. Relations,” at the IMU. Within it, he laid out a series of tactics and goals for strengthening China-US relations and emphasized the importance of collaboration between the two nations.

Coming to Uruguay, the only sort of background I had in Spanish was a few short Duolingo sessions on the plane ride there. I figured it would be a “learn as you go” type of experience. Needless to say, my first day in Uruguay was somewhat of a reality shock for me, when I attempted to greet my non-English speaking host family and could only smile and nod.

UI student receives a Fulbright U.S. Student Program English Teaching Assistantship award to Taiwan

WorldCanvass hosted experts in climate science and the environment to discuss policies in the U.S. and around the world to help the environment.