On a transatlantic odyssey in Kenya, Iowa State student Melissa Ovel had the opportunity to eat a sacred feast with the Massai Tribe in the country in East Africa,

“Modernization has not changed the Masai Tribe,” Ovel said. “They still slaughter lambs and make a feast.”

Ovel, a senior in pre-veterinary medicine, studied in Kenya from February through May of this year as part of the Wildlife Management Program.

The Study Abroad Center, in Hamilton Hall, was trying to expand the profile to include a broader range of disciplines and study abroad destinations.

Trevor Nelson, coordinator at study abroad, said, “We are working on a program to Costa Rica, as well as a regent semester in Australia, which should be available in 1997.”

There is a need to heighten global awareness, he said. More citizens are needed who have direct exposure to foreign cultures.

Vanessa Lutz is a sophomore in agriculture education. She studied in the country of Uzbekistan at the Tashkent Institute of Irrigation and Agriculture Mechanization last January through May.

“My global awareness has increased tremendously. I pay attention to what is going on socially and economically in Uzbekistan, it seems so close to home. I was exposed to non-Western scientific points of view that I never heard of. Also, I gained a better appreciation of old Soviet Union ideologies,” she said.

To discover the world beyond Europe is a goal the Liason Group for International Education Exchange is working on. The goal proposes that the proportion of U.S. students going to Asia, Africa, Latin America, Eastern Europe and Middle East should be increased by at least 35 percent of the total study abroad students by the year 2000.

The break down of destination by continent for the fiscal year 1995 at ISU was as follows: two students went to Africa, nine went to Asia, 35 to North America (including Canada and Mexico), 49 to Australia-New Zealand and 185 to Europe.

Nicole Noland, an graduate student in general studies, studied in Nigeria last summer.

“It was totally different than anything you would experience in the U.S. Not as far as modernization, but the attitude towards people. It is a humanization that we don’t have here,” she said.

Noland intends on going into dance anthropology; she has a great appreciation for the arts in Nigeria.

“Oshobo is the artist capitol of Nigeria, the entire city gives a unique sense of quaintness,” she said. “There are no clocks in the streets, and no one is running over each other trying to get here and there like in the U.S. Everything gets done in a timely manner.”

Ovel, Lutz and Noland plan to embark on another transatlantic journey someday. The experience has been both exciting and educational for them all.

“It was an experience I will never forget,” Ovel said. “It introduced me to a whole new dimension of real people and cultures.”