It has been over a year since IU has called back students studying abroad. However,  IU is now beginning to reopen some of their study abroad opportunities as soon as this summer. Studying abroad can be the highlight of many students’ college experience, so when the opportunities were closed, it caused many students to miss out.

For those who were abroad when the pandemic hit, their semester was cut short. After only a few weeks abroad they received an email from IU to return home as soon as possible. This happened to IU senior Anisha Wilson, who was studying abroad in Budapest, Hungary. She said that when she got the email, she booked a flight for the next day but was stuck with a 19 hour layover in Warsaw Poland. She was sad that she had to leave so soon but still loved the trip while it lasted and recommends that people spend time abroad.

Now that vaccines are being administered and mitigation testing is becoming easier, students will hopefully be able to study abroad. The Associate Vice President for Overseas Studies Kathleen Sideli said that, “Given the situation with ongoing pandemic, we continue to hope that a limited number of fall programs might be operational if our partners abroad can accommodate our students with appropriate virus mitigation strategies on site.”

IU Junior Madi Smalstig was recently accepted to take part in a study abroad program this fall in Madrid, Spain and is hoping that she will be able to attend.

Smalstig mentioned that even though her study abroad is for the Fall semester she still has to schedule classes at IU just in case she can’t go abroad. On top of that, IU is also recommending that students not make any financial commitments until 60 days prior to the start date. For now, Smalstig just has to hope that everything goes well and she will be able to go abroad.

If you are looking to study abroad for a program outside of IU it has to be in a country with a travel advisory below tier three and it has to follow standard non-IU program procedures. For more information check out IU’s office of overseas studies website. Here you can find information about all of the different programs and it provides information on how to contact overseas advisors to help you set up what programs are the best fit.