On the morning of Jan. 11, I woke early, poured myself a cup of coffee and sat down to reflect. It was an important day, one that had the potential to significantly impact my scholarship and teaching. I wanted to get it right. I was about to join the ranks of nearly 200 other graduate students who, over the last ten years, had participated in the Obermann Graduate Institute on Engagement and the Academy. Their engagement work — which ranges from collaborating with incarcerated Iowans to creating public art to coordinating disaster relief — both excited and intimidated me as I thought about my own project.

UI alumnus and award-winning photojournalist David Guttenfelder will be featured in an ad for Squarespace, the website-building platform, debuting during the Academy Awards on Sunday, February 28. Guttenfelder graduated from the UI in 1993 and has since captured powerful moments in more than 75 countries.

Ben Mauk is a 2012 graduate of the Iowa Writers' Workshop who earned a Fulbright Study/Research Grant to Germany. In this article, Mauk reflects upon on the work of fellow UI alum, Patrick Reed, who graduated with a Master in Fine Arts in papermaking and bookbinding from the UI Center for the Book in 2013 and also earned a Fulbright Research/Study Grant to Germany.

I got on a plane to LAX with an overweight suitcase as opposed to a dream in my cardigan.

The University of Iowa is one of the top producers of Fulbright students for 2015-16, according to the Chronicle of Higher Education. The Fulbright Program is the U.S. government’s flagship international educational exchange program. Top-producing institutions are highlighted annually in The Chronicle of Higher Education. Twelve University of Iowa students were awarded a Fulbright U.S. Student Program grant to conduct research, attend graduate school, undertake creative projects, or serve as English teaching assistants abroad in the 2015–16 academic year. This is the greatest number of placements the UI has ever secured in a single calendar year, resulting in a tied ranking for 27th on a list of peer institutions.

The African Studies Program (ASP) and UI International Programs invite you to attend an upcoming baraza titled, "Producing Communities and Commodities:Saraficom and Commercial Nationalism in Kenya." Featuring guest speakers Melissa Tully and David Tuwei, the lecture will take place on February 26, 2016, from 2:30-4:00 p.m. in the UCC 2390 Executive Boardroom.

I don’t really know how I feel about the word accomplished. It takes me back to a Jane Austen novel where women were seen as accomplished if they could read, sing, sew and or play music. Am I accomplished? I am a third year college student, with a decent GPA and two part-time jobs. Also, I am studying abroad in Prague right now. So, I guess that I could say that I am accomplished for my age.

We take the 11 a.m. bus. Take the noon or 1 p.m. and you risk not getting a seat. There are no 2 or 3 buses, and I have no idea why. But by 4pm, the sun is getting ready to set and it’s too cold to wander around town. So we take the 11 a.m. bus.

The Fulbright Lunch & Learn series will continue with "A Nineteenth-Century Transatlantic Ambassador: Fredrika Bremer’s Travels From the Stockholm Archipelago to the Caribbean." Featuring guest speaker Adriana Méndez Rodenas, a professor in the department of Spanish and Portuguese at the UI, this event will take place on March 4 from 12:30-1:20 p.m. in 1117 UCC.

Studying abroad has been something I’ve wanted to do since I can remember. Growing up, I recall feeling a great sense of longing, even jealously, when I would see people I knew get the chance to take on the great adventure overseas. I knew one day I wanted that to be me.