A world of adventure and learning is available to any student with a desire to travel and experience new cultures.

Many students do not realize the opportunities that studying abroad can offer. However, the College of Agriculture’s international agriculture programs gave four Iowa State students skills they could not have learned in a lecture hall.

Iowa State participated in the Samantha Smith Memorial Exchange Program with the University of Agriculture (UAN) in Nitra, Slovakia.

Five Slovakian students spent the Fall 1995 semester at ISU. Then five ISU students experienced a different culture by spending the spring and summer of 1996 in Slovakia.

Susan Wahls, a senior in genetics, and Andrea Gronau, who graduated from ISU with an agriculture studies degree, were two ISU students who traveled with the program.

Wahls and Gronau found that experiencing the culture and studying the language took up most of their time. The two took some agriculture classes taught by both American and Slovak professors. In an agricultural law class, ISU students went to a Slovak court. They also toured several collective farming operations.

In addition to learning about Slovak agriculture, Wahls and Gronau visited 14 eastern and western European countries, including Poland, Hungary, Ukraine, Czechoslovakia and Austria. They also took program trips to Northern Slovakia’s Tatras Mts., Budapest and Prague.

The two said their most vivid travel experience was Auschwitz and Birkenau, Poland. At Auschwitz they visited a former WWII concentration camp.

“You couldn’t prepare for what you saw there,” Gronau said.

The life-applicable lessons that Gronau and Wahls learned are priceless, they said. Wahls said she learned the most when she tried to communicate with the people.

“It’s possible to get around even if you don’t speak the language, ” she said.

Gronau and Wahls said it was hard getting used to the differences in the way Slovakians interacted with other people. “People [there] are very honest,” Wahls said. “Too honest by American standards,” added Gronau.

They said that while Americans tried not to hurt someone’s feelings, the Slovaks said exactly what they thought.

Both women had to get used to the stares of strangers. “They don’t smile a lot,” Wahls said. “If you smile a lot,” Gronau said,”then they know you’re an American.”

ISU agriculture students also participated in the Presidents’ Student Exchange Program with Uzbekistan.

Shelley Zimmerman, a graduate student in anthropology, and Julie Tritz, a graduate student in agriculture education and studies, left for the Asian country in the middle of May and returned just a few weeks ago. While at the Tashkent Institute of Irrigation and Agricultural Mechanization Engineers (TIIAME), the two worked on individual research for their graduate projects.

To collect data, Tritz said she spent much of her time interviewing female professors at the institute to determine their perceptions about women in agriculture.

Zimmerman, on the other hand, concentrated on the involvement of women in the informal sector of the economy. Basically, she researched the work that women did to help support their families financially, while still being at home to care for their families.

Tritz and Zimmerman also taught English to students and faculty at the institute at two different learning levels, introductory and conversational English.

This was the first chance for Uzbekistan people to study English since they became an independent nation, “people were extremely enthusiastic about learning,” Zimmerman said.

The two said the Uzbekistan people were fascinated with Americans. Zimmerman and Tritz also attracted a crowd when they were in public.

“We stood out like sore thumbs,” Tritz said. They said people were always wondering what was going on, but that the attention was the best way for them to get to know the people.

The Uzbekistan people were so fascinated with Tritz and Zimmerman that the two ISU students were often invited to strangers’ home for meals. “I can’t count the times a complete stranger invited me into their home,” Zimmerman said.

Tritz and Zimmerman said that on the the few occasions they accepted an invitation, their hosts went all-out for their American visitors

Tritz and Zimmerman also said that other students at the institute would knock on their door late at night just because they wanted to practice talking with the Americans.

Perhaps the greatest adventure for the two happened when they had only been in the country for a few days. Zimmerman thought she was sick because of some food she had eaten, but it turned out that she had appendicitis.

In the middle of the night, Tritz tried to help her sick friend by calling the U.S. Embassy, but there was no answer.

Finally, she reached some United Nations doctors who were very accommodating because they understood the transportation and communications problems that the ISU students faced.

After their experiences, Zimmerman said, “I feel like I can handle any situation now. It was really a life changing experience for me,” she added.

The programs these students were involved in are open to all students in the College of Agriculture. Students interested should contact the International Agriculture Programs Office in 104 Curtiss Hall.

The programs are organized by a team of students and staff. Future programs include trips during semesters as well as breaks. Travel courses are available to Costa Rica, Yucatan, Belize, Panama, Philippines, Senegal, Honduras, Thailand and Greece.