According to the Study Abroad Center Web site, nearly 1,200 ISU students studied abroad during the 2005 fiscal year, a 4.4 percent increase over the previous year.

“A lot of students are increasingly interested in studying abroad,” said Trevor Nelson, program manager of the Study Abroad Center.

The number of students who studied abroad in the 1995 fiscal year was only 280, with students traveling to eight countries. The late 1990s, however, saw a 12 percent annual increase as the countries available increased to 38, including Antarctica.

The Study Abroad Fair, held Sept. 15 from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the Great Hall, Sun Room and South Ballroom of the Memorial Union, is among the most beneficial to students who are considering the possibility of studying abroad, Nelson said.

“It is a good opportunity for students to meet a program director,” he said.

“It is a good way to get information about the program that interests them.”

He said he expects about 500 to 700 students to attend.

The purpose of the fair is to let students know the wide range of options open to them.

The Study Abroad Center faculty are available to provide information, answer questions and help students identify what program best suit them.

Among those students who have studied abroad is Jenna Hermanson, senior in marketing. She studied in C‹¨«ceres, Spain, her sophomore year to polish her Spanish skills.

“It was the greatest experience I have had so far,” she said.

Hermanson was taking Spanish classes at Iowa State before she decided to go abroad, and realized she wanted to improve her Spanish skills and learn more about the language.

She said she studied abroad in the spring of 2003 and enjoyed it.

“There was no difficulty because people were welcoming and helped me to learn Spanish,” she said. “They were welcoming cultural differences.”

Of those considering studying abroad, students in the College of Design are most likely to seize the opportunity, leading with 261 students studying abroad.

According to the Web site, 13.4 percent of the College of Design’s student body took part last year, while the total percentage of ISU students studying abroad was 4.5 percent.

This fall, 65 students from the art and design department are studying in Rome – a program that 154 out of the 261 students participated in last year – and 55 students in architecture are expected to leave for the spring program in January.

“We’ve got a lot of positive responses from students,” said John Cunnally, associate professor of art and design and the coordinator for all of the College of Design programs.

He said many participants, after returning to Iowa State, say studying abroad gave them a life-changing experience by allowing them to get out of ordinary life.

The classes in Italy are conducted in English by Iowa State, although the students studied Italian while at Iowa State in preparation for everyday life there.

“Although studying abroad is expensive, many students still apply for the program,” Cunnally said.

These days, because of a poor foreign exchange rate, studying abroad is more expensive than it was in the 1990s.

There is money available, however. Last year, the total amount of scholarships available to students was $118,000, increased from the usual $93,400 because of an additional end-of-year allocation of $25,000 from the Office of Student Financial Aid.

Last year, 345 students applied for the scholarship, and 255 received scholarships, with an average award amount of just less than $500.