Hao Zhou, a third-year MFA student in film and video production, recently added a Student Academy Award to the list of film awards and nominations he has received over the years. As the University of Iowa’s first recipient of this honor, he won the Gold Medal award in the category of Alternative/Experimental for his film Frozen Out. He submitted Frozen Out for a 2022 Oscar nomination for Best Live Action Short Film and will learn soon whether it is selected.

The University of Iowa and Education for Employment are partnering to launch a project that provides demand-driven entrepreneurship training to 50 Saudi women.

Dean Ganim celebrates the opening of the new U.S. Passport Office at the University of Iowa and how we celebrated International Education Week.

Born and raised in Brazil, Gustavo Campos is a fourth-year finance student from the University of Iowa Tippie College of Business who will start his career at the London office of Jefferies Group LLC, an American multinational independent investment bank and financial services company, after graduation in May 2022. He will be working as a sales and trading analyst in the emerging markets desk. Gustavo says he was drawn to this career path by a combination of extracurricular activities, internships, and the fact that he was born and raised in an emerging country.

Lauren Smiley (BA journalism and mass communication; Spanish ’05) is an award-winning freelance journalist (https://laurensmiley.contently.com/) based in San Francisco, California. Writing for publications such as WIRED, The Atlantic, and The New York Times, Smiley feels her study abroad experience in Guadalajara, Mexico, as an undergraduate at Iowa helped her build skills that contribute to her success writing in-depth magazine stories—namely navigating the arrival in a new community with grace and resourcefulness. We caught up with Marion, Iowa, native Smiley to learn more about her study abroad experience and how it shaped her personally and professionally.

The University of Iowa U.S. Fulbright Program awardees will travel abroad, after candidates were deferred because of the pandemic last year.

Over 170 meals were served to University of Iowa students and members of the surrounding community during a special Thanksgiving meal event on Monday, November 22. 

The generosity of Drs. Joel and Sandra Barkan led to the creation of a scholarship for undergraduate students to study abroad in non-Western countries. Both Sandra (PhD comparative literature ’84), formerly comparative literature professor and associate dean of the Graduate College, and her late husband, Joel, political science professor, had distinguished careers at Iowa and helped to infuse international education on campus.

International Programs was proud to celebrate the Grand Opening Celebration of the University of Iowa Passport Office, Wednesday, November 17, in 1111 University Capitol Centre. 

The new International Affairs Committee within the University of Iowa’s Graduate and Professional Student Government received its first Director. The committee was made to provide a platform for international students to voice their unique concerns.