With the changing seasons, students may desire to travel to study, but not necessarily across seas.

National Student Exchange gives students the opportunity to spend a semester or a full academic year in the United States, Canada, Guam, Puerto Rico or the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Chrissy Rewerts, junior in history, said she wanted to get away from Iowa. She heard about NSE through a seminar class and thought it was a good stepping-stone toward studying abroad.

She chose to spend a spring semester at the University of Alaska Southeast because it was different and unique, and she wanted to see the Northern Lights.

“Alaska sounded so foreign and so adventurous and somewhere I probably won’t get the chance to go many other times,” Rewerts said.

She took 13 credits while there and said it was the perfect amount. She also got a job working at the cafeteria. Rewerts said the outdoor studies major is popular in Alaska, and as a non-outdoor studies major student, she still got to take physical education classes that gave her the opportunity to do outdoor things with the other students. She took a winter backpacking class, where she hiked to different places and slept in igloos for a weekend.

Rewerts said she was surprised a steady mist of rain fell most days, which affected her mood.

“When those one days of sunlight came, it was like the greatest day ever, and you know, a great mood lifter,” Rewarts said.

She said she would have liked the school to be bigger and make it easier for her to find classes that could transfer back to Iowa State.

The experience was eye-opening for Rewerts because she learned lot about herself, and the independence was rewarding.

“Going somewhere completely unknown and figuring things out for yourself was so liberating, and the independence was just so great and exciting,” Rewerts said.

She advises anyone interested in traveling to a different region to go through with it. 

“After you leave your comfort zone, there’s so much more learning that can be gained, so I advise people to choose a place and stick with it and have the time of their life” Rewerts said.

Dylan Thomas, junior in political science, plans on going to Johnson State College in Vermont during the fall semester. 

He chose to use the program when he heard about it in a seminar class, but started seriously considering it when he started working in the NSE office. He knew he wanted to go somewhere in the New England region and ended up choosing Vermont because it was more central and seemed like a good fit.

“It’s a unique spot,” Thomas said.

He said he’s excited for the smaller school size of 1,900 students, where he can meet a lot of people and get that closeness. Thomas wishes he would have studied elsewhere a little earlier, but said that either way, it can work out either way and that no one is ever too old to do it.

Jade Coulter, senior in psychology, had always wanted to study abroad, and when she heard about NSE, it sparked her interest. It was also a cheap and closer alternative than studying abroad.

She decided to spend her fall semester at the University of Virgin Islands St. Thomas for the different culture and warm climate.

She took 12 credits and switched some classes around so they could transfer back to Iowa State.

Coulter found it particularly interesting to be surrounded by such a diverse population. 

“Going to Iowa State, it was a lot of diversity, but then going down there, it was just so much more and just getting a different culture was just really rewarding, you know,” Coulter said. “You can learn that the world is a much bigger place than you think it is.”

Coulter said she was often offered rides on her way to her job at the surf shop because people thought she was a tourist.

“People look at you, they see that you’re white, and they’re like, ‘Oh, hey, you will give me money if I tell you that I’ll give you a ride somewhere,’” Coulter said. “So it was different to be the one that people are looking at differently.”

Coulter visited the beach in between classes during her stay in the Virgin Islands. She also snorkeled and hung out with friends who lived there.

“The water’s so clear everywhere that you can go snorkeling, so I just bought a little kit of snorkeling gear and I’d go snorkeling every once in a while,” Coulter said.

Her mom visited, and the two traveled to several islands, one being the British Virgin Island of Tortola. They also swam with dolphins.

Coulter and other NSE students visited Virgin Gorda, another British Virgin Island. There, they climbed through the baths, a beach area that shows evidence of the island’s volcanic origins.

She said that throughout her stay, there were times when she felt homesick, but in the end, she felt like she needed more time to do all of the amazing things she wanted to do.

“When you’re missing home, you’re like, wow, I kind of want to go home. And then the next day you’re sitting on the beach and it’s so sunny and you’re going snorkeling and you’re like, wow, why would I ever want to leave?” Coulter said. “So yeah, there’s definitely those ups and downs and your mind kind of changes a lot.”

Regardless, Coulter said she has learned a lot about herself and has become more independent.

“I stepped off of the plane when I got there, and I was like, wait, how am I going to get to the university? Like, I have no idea what I’m doing,” she said.

Having to take control of the situation and do things by herself was a learning experience for Coulter.

“Down in the Virgin Islands, I realized that they didn’t have any sort of mental health facilities for people, and basically if people have mental health problems, they were either homeless or they were in jail,” she said. “Learning that really kind of motivated me to come back here and work toward my degree.”