You’ve probably pictured yourself in new situations. Maybe it was exploring the Australian outback, or the waterways in Venice. Maybe you saw yourself rubbing suit-clad elbows with the bankers at financial giant Principal Financial or working behind the scenes for Saturday Night Live catching time with Maya Rudolph and Darrell Hammond. And when you return from those experiences, it would be interesting to compare notes with your roommate who just finished a tour through Ecuador or your neighbor who got to work at CNN.

At BVU, this is the way you gain experience, prepare yourself for what you want to do in life, firsthand. The possibilities are many – major businesses and institutions, universities in far-off countries –be the master of your own experience.

Study Abroad Opportunities 

At Buena Vista University, you'll find some amazing opportunities for international travel through our study-abroad program, study-travel courses during our January interim and student exchange programs with universities in Taiwan and Japan.

The study-abroad program provides semester-long, and in some cases year-long, experiences where students are involved in internships or take classes at a foreign university and are fully immersed in that country's culture. Students have traveled to countries such as Japan, South Africa, China, Kenya, Spain, Wales, England, Austria, Costa Rica, New Zealand, Australia, Argentina, Mexico, the Netherlands, France, Italy, Brazil and Russia.

For example, Renee Fagen, a sophomore psychology major from Perry, Iowa, took classes at the University of Wales in Bangor, Wales during the fall semester. "This experience really allowed me to become more independent. I learned to live and interact with people inside and outside of classes who are very different from me and it was a great experience."

BVU students have also interned for the British Parliament, a wildlife management program at a national park system in Kenya, a newspaper in South Africa, and an agency in Vienna, Austria that does work for the United Nations. Some students in the School of Education have also done half of their student teaching experience abroad in such locations as Rome, Italy and Brasilia, Brazil.

Another popular conduit for international travel is our January interim, which provides a concentrated three-week academic experience that focuses on various aspects of the countries you visit, including the art, culture and historical sites. Students have traveled to destinations as diverse as Cuba, Germany, Poland, the Czech Republic, Israel, Guatemala, Egypt, Greece, India, Vanuatu, Mexico, Japan, Peru, Australia, England and France.

Buena Vista offers opportunities to make such international experiences as affordable as possible through special group pricing, where applicable, as well as a number of travel scholarships. The university also directly funds some travel by allowing institutional financial aid to be used for study-abroad experiences.

No matter what travel experience you may select, your safety is a prime concern. The university monitors international travel advisories and warnings from the U.S. Department of State for any international developments that might pose a threat to student safety. You also are briefed on safety and "common sense" guidelines to follow prior to a trip. Many of the shorter trips, such as all of those during the January interim, are led by BVU faculty and staff.