Kent State students were invited to attend the Study Abroad Fair on the second floor of the Student Center Wednesday, Sept. 17, where a wide array of study abroad programs, internship and volunteer opportunities were showcased for those interested in an international experience.

Well-known study abroad programs for fashion, architecture, journalism, communication and information and business administration students were featured, as well as lesser-known programs for hospitality management, sports management, parks and recreation and speech pathology students. 

M. Christine Connors, Academic Advisor for the College of Education, Health and Human Services, said a big change has been made in the past year and new Kent Core classes have been added to the 2015 Kent State Florence Spring Semester program, providing more students the opportunity to study abroad.

“When I first started working with students interested in studying abroad, they really didn’t realize all the options they had,” Connors said.  “Studying abroad is an excellent way for students in competitive programs, like speech pathology, to set themselves apart from the rest.”

Connors has worked with Kent State staff in Florence, primarily Nicoletta Peluffo, the Academic Coordinator of Italian Language, to create another program for the 2015 Kent State Florence Spring Semester catered to event planning minors.

Financial Aid Officers were at the fair to help answer funding questions for potential study abroad students. Anissa Strickland, a financial aid officer, said students are mostly concerned with their payment options, and program costs greatly differ between semester and yearlong programs.

An abundance of outside vendors, including Peace Corps and Webster University, were also promoting their international programs to Kent students.  

International internship opportunities, provided by companies like Global Experiences, were also featured. Global Experiences has been specializing in international internships for 14 years and has a network of more than 1,000 employers worldwide. Melissa Buerkett-Vivian, an academic internship director from Global Experiences, said her company has never been featured at the Kent State Study Abroad Fair, but has had students from Kent State participate in their program, and they hope to recruit more.

Ediz Kaykayoglu, the assistant director of education abroad said, “Even if students only stopped by for five minutes, we hope the next step is getting them involved with the Office of Global Education.” 

In order to truly learn about the world and be more open-minded, it’s important to have a study abroad experience, said Kaykayoglu.

Contact Kaitlin Siegel at [email protected].