by Erin Holaday Ziegler, Alicia Brab and Gwendolyn Schaefer

This has not been a summer by the pool for University of Kentucky rising junior Gwendolyn Schaefer who is participating in a seven-month study abroad experience in Amman, Jordan with AMIDEAST, a leading American nonprofit organization engaged in international education, training and development activities in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA).

Schaefer, an international studies and geography major, began the summer session in intensive Arabic language classes and will continue through the fall with Middle East and North African studies.  She has created a blog about her experiences, and the following is based upon online excerpts:

Thursday, June 9, 2011

"I cannot begin to describe how excited I am about this new adventure in my life. Granted, now that the departure

by Erin Holaday Ziegler, Alicia Brab and Gwendolyn Schaefer

This has not been a summer by the pool for University of Kentucky rising junior Gwendolyn Schaefer who is participating in a seven-month study abroad experience in Amman, Jordan with AMIDEAST, a leading American nonprofit organization engaged in international education, training and development activities in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA).

Schaefer, an international studies and geography major, began the summer session in intensive Arabic language classes and will continue through the fall with Middle East and North African studies.  She has created a blog about her experiences, and the following is based upon online excerpts

by Erin Holady Ziegler

When rising University of Kentucky senior Joseph Mann arrived in Cape Town, South Africa in mid-May, he was ready to make a difference and ready for a challenge. Little did he know that his travel abroad experience would change the course of his life.

"You just need to come here," Mann laughed. "That's what I've told my friends and family. In the face of such adversity, there's hope. South Africans know that they have a bright future. Despite issues with service availability and government incapacity, they have faith."

Mann, a psychology and gender and women's studies major at UK, has a keen interest in human

by Erin Holaday Ziegler



From the complexity of Proctor and Gamble's profit-maximizing strategies, to the seeming simplicity of a crepe myrtle's determination of how much root mass to grow, the world makes decisions in a spectacular array of circumstances.



Most academic disciplines at the University of Kentucky address the process of decision making in some way. According to UK biology Professor Philip Crowley, there's a rich mix of similarities and differences in approach among the disciplines that provides great opportunities for cross-fertilization when it comes to studying decision making.



"For example, there are different goals for the decision making process in different fields, such as profit maximization in

University of Kentucky international studies and history major Richard Sellnow will head to China this summer as the sole recipient of the 2011 NSCS International Scholar Laureate Program Award (ISLP).

This $2,000 award was created by The National Society of Collegiate Scholars (NSCS) to help members attend one of the ISLP's many programs during the summer of 2011.

“I am incredibly grateful to the NSCS for honoring me with this most appreciated award,” said Sellnow. “Participating in the International Scholar Laureate Program is an amazing opportunity which will be of myriad benefit to me, but it is also an opportunity which I would have had difficulty taking advantage of without the most generous assistance

University of Kentucky international studies and history major Richard Sellnow will head to China this summer as the sole recipient of the 2011 NSCS International Scholar Laureate Program Award (ISLP).

This $2,000 award was created by The National Society of Collegiate Scholars(NSCS) to help members attend one of the ISLP's many programs during the summer of 2011.

“I am incredibly grateful to the NSCS for honoring me with this most appreciated award,” said Sellnow. “Participating in the International Scholar Laureate Program is an amazing opportunity which will be of myriad benefit to me, but it is also an opportunity which I would have had difficulty taking

Undergraduate Spotlight

by Colleen Glenn

Experience is the best teacher. Just ask Alecia Fields. Having recently returned from Africa, Fields knows firsthand how invaluable direct experience can be.



Fields, a 2010 graduate, spent time this summer in Ethiopia as a participant in the Sierra Club's Global Population & Environment Study Tour. One of three activists selected to spend 10 days in Ethiopia as a volunteer, Fields visited various sites and organizations around the country to learn about the impacts of population growth on the environment.



>>View Alecia's photos from Ethiopia



“It’s places like Ethiopia that climate change is really

Whitney Turientine

International Studies, Sophomore 

by Joy Gonsalves

International Studies is as promising a program as sophomore Whitney Turientine, is a young scholar. “I always wanted to be an International Studies major,” Turientine began. “I’ve taken Spanish since second grade. I was the one in our family who was always watching travel shows on TV, but I’ve had questions about the world, politically, that no one’s been able to answer.”

Not surprisingly, soon after hearing the International Studies program had been added to the College of Arts & Sciences, Whitney decided to change her Political Science major to a minor and keep Spanish as a second major. The newness of the IS program didn’t deter her: “It’s growing and flexible,” she said, citing its strong recruitment potential as a major broad in scope. She also

But to Rebecca Linares, the city and Latin America as a whole are not just exotic vacation destinations; they are tangible entities whose interests and culture are directly and firmly tied to the United States. And her work is aimed at showing how.

Linares left Louisville in 2006 bound for Midway College. After realizing that the school’s selection of courses would not satisfy her ambitious goals, she transferred to the University of Kentucky in 2007. Here, she tailored her plans into a Spanish and Latin American Studies/International Studies