Amira Nash, a PhD student from Cedar Rapids, Iowa, is a recipient of the 2023 Global Student Award, which recognizes one undergraduate and one graduate student who are leaders deeply engaged in international education on campus or abroad.

Over 250 middle school students from Eastern Iowa schools participated in the International Day Human Rights Conference 2023. Organized by the University of Iowa Baker Teacher Leader Center and sponsored by International Programs and the Stanley Center for Peace and Security, this year’s conference theme was Education for All.  

In the most recent Iowa delegation trip to Kosovo, UI representative Russ Ganim, associate provost and dean of International Programs, visited multiple partner universities and advanced plans for a large grant application through USAID. 

The Global Education Institute for Teachers, co-organized by UI International Programs (IP) and the Stanley Center for Peace and Security, is an annual professional development workshop for Iowa's K-12 teachers of all disciplines that focuses on international topics and issues of critical importance.

The changes brought on by the coronavirus pandemic have impacted every person, every industry, every region, and every communal activity for nearly the whole of 2020. Even after the much-hoped-for vaccine is developed and distributed, some believe that life and work patterns have been forever altered. What comes next in the field of global education is the subject of the December WorldCanvass on the topic “Teaching and Learning Post-COVID.”  WorldCanvass will be held virtually through Zoom, from 5:30-7 p.m. on December 8.

For Henry Hartzler, what started as a passion for both teaching and climate science eventually transformed into the opportunity of a lifetime. This August, he will be serving in the Peace Corps as an environmental education primary teacher in Nicaragua.

Award-winning India Winterim matches undergrads with India’s best

The UI’s Obermann Center for Advanced Studies has long been the home of interdisciplinary collaboration, where thinking outside the box isn’t just the result but the operating principle. Ten years ago, the Obermann Center, believing strongly in the power of actively-engaged scholarship, established an institute which would put experienced faculty together with graduate students to show them how they can enhance their teaching, research, and creative work through purposeful interaction with community partners. We’ll hear from participants—faculty, graduate students, and community members—on the next WorldCanvass in a program called “Taking It to the Streets: Engagement and the Academy.” The free program begins at 5 p.m. on Tuesday, March 1, at FilmScene in downtown Iowa City.

On December 5-6, International Programs hosted the Global Education Institute for Teachers in partnership with the Stanley Foundation. The annual professional development workshop is offered to Iowa's K-12 teachers, with an aim of increasing educators’ awareness of and capacity to teach concepts and skills necessary for developing globally-minded students.

Snorkeling among marine life off the Mamanuca Islands in Fiji; a rainy Sunday at Vatican City as thousands gather for mass in St. Peter's Square under the shelter of umbrellas; closeups of many hands creating intricate art in northern India; a blood moon hovering over Mayflower Residence Hall; throngs of students on the Pentacrest during Homecoming. These moments in life were experienced and captured in photos by University of Iowa students—both U.S. students studying abroad and international students here on campus. They are among the winning images selected for the 2015 International Programs' annual photo contest as part of International Education Week—a way to inspire more awareness of the many ways UI students can experience international education.

This summer, Meena Khandelwal was awarded over $83,000 by the prestigious Fulbright-Hays Group Projects Abroad (GPA) Program to lead a group of UI students and faculty to India to investigate the curious case of the chulha- a wood fueled cook-stove- used in rural areas across India. Often cited as a cause of deforestation and pollution, efforts to replace them with solar cookers have been widespread but largely unsuccessful. This project will bring together UI engineers, anthropologists, urban planners, and historians to examine chulhas from every dimension: what has motivated efforts to improve them, what interventions have occurred, and why have these efforts tended to fail.