On Wednesday, inquiring students flooded into the Mahurin Honors College and descended into the various study abroad opportunities WKU offers its students. The Office of Study Abroad & Global Learning hosted the information fair and accommodated current and prospective WKU students with pamphlets, accessible resources and knowledge.

Those with a cumulative GPA of 2.0 or higher who are in good standing with the university can participate in WKU’s study abroad programs.

Inmaculada Pertusa, a professor of Spanish, said that she saw no reason for students not to take courses abroad.

“Students will be able to gain the same credits as if the course was taken in America,” Pertusa said. “And it’s sometimes a richer experience to learn a foreign language in its native land.”

SAGL gave away free T-Shirts to the first 300 students who came to the event.

Papers explaining why studying abroad is a good decision included a list of scholarships offered by the U.S. Department of State Resources.

The KIIS Study Abroad sheet provided a checklist with deadlines and all the programs and their prices were listed.

According to a pamphlet from the Office of Scholar Development, in the last five years, 429 WKU students and alumni earned more than $3 million in national scholarship competitions. Last school year, students were awarded $270,500 with the average award per scholar receiving $6,631.

SAGL also informed students that they supply walk-in peer-advising to help with applying for scholarships and figuring out which term to study abroad.

Junior special education major Julia Butler attended the fair to learn about the financial options.

“I’m very interested in studying abroad,” Butler said. “There’s a bunch of scholarship opportunities they talked about, so I’m just looking to find out more.” 

The concern for costs in studying abroad can be discouraging, but the office encourages participants to apply for financial aid, use KEES and CAP money and to apply for some other scholarships WKU offers.  

Several tables were devoted solely to give students all the information on to apply for a wide variety of scholarships. 

The Office of Scholar Development handed out packets that outline how to go on the study abroad website and apply for specific scholarships. 

Kirsten Kellersberger, representative of the Advising & Career Development Center, assured students that studying abroad won’t slow down or interrupt their set graduation date.

“We’re here to make sure students know they can stay on track to graduate and study abroad as well.” Kellersberger said. “And they can do that through help with their advisor.”

Reporter Matthew Williams can be reached at 270-745-6291 and [email protected].