Alaska to Italy: Study Abroad Prep

Hi my name is Agnes and I’m going to have a crazy awesome May. Three days after finals I’ll be flying from Fairbanks to Florence, Italy! I’ll be staying there for 3 weeks and taking an art class while I’m there. When I walked into the Study Abroad office last semester I didn’t think studying abroad was going to be possible for me. Then after working with Erica, I am now heading to Italy. I had a lot of questions and plenty of forms to fill out and the study abroad office has helped me to make the process as easy as possible.

So after talking to Erica, here are some frequent answers to various questions (including personal commentary):

$$$$$

• For the most part, financial aid used to go to school at UAF can be used away (APS, UA Scholar, federal loans, Pell Grant, etc.). Pell Grant is need-based: and Gilman Award is for  first-generation students (meaning your parents did not complete a secondary education degree).
• There are a lot of scholarships that students can apply for, so don’t give up! The UAF FInancial Aid office can help you to find scholarships that apply to what you’ll be doing when you study away. http://www.uaf.edu/finaid/
• If you’re trying to raise money, I recommend using gofundme, crowdfunding, and  asking extended family to meet the space between scholarships, work savings, and loans.
• If you are an Alaskan resident, you can remain eligible for PFD if you do go away.

Credits:

• Every credit and every grade that a student earns away will follow him/her back to UAF. The default is that the class will appear on the UAF transcript as electives, but if a course taken away is close enough in content to a course taught at UAF, the course might appear as that specific UAF course (world history class abroad might come back as HIST F100X).

Safety:

• UAF doesn't approve programs with current U.S. State Department Travel Warnings. Want to know if the place you’re interested in is okayed? You can contact the study abroad office.
• If something happens, we deal with it on a case-by-case basis
• Our office reaches out to each student in the area via many different services like email, Facebook, and Skype.
• They send a letter reminding students of emergency plans, etc.
• Insurance is recommended to be purchased before travel for health, medical and evacuation.

Experiential Learning (academic/credit-bearing)

• There are a lot of options for experiential learning available.
• International internships
• Volunteer/service learning abroad
• Field-based programs
• Research

Noah has studied abroad already, and I am preparing. Feel free to email us from the Student Ambassador page https://www.uaf.edu/ambassadors/.