April 4 event to highlight UNL students' study-abroad experiences

The University of Nebraska-Lincoln Office of International Affairs and College of Journalism and Mass Communications will team up April 4 to highlight UNL students' study-abroad stories through a collection of photographs, art, poetry and flamenco music.

This first-time event will take place at the Creamery Building, 701 P St. in the Haymarket from 6 to 10 p.m. April 4. The exhibit is free and open to the public and refreshments will be available.

While many students in the United States spent their spring break tanning by the ocean, catching up with school work, or just relaxing from their normal routines, six UNL journalism students traveled 10,000 miles to Pristina, Kosovo, a brand new country in the former Yugoslavia. Led by photojournalism professor Bruce Thorson, the students spent 10 days documenting the long-lasting effects of the war in the Kosovo. Clay Lomneth, a junior news-editorial student photographer experienced an epiphany before boarding the plane on the way back home.

"I felt a terrible sensation of loss. Like I have left something behind," Lomneth said. "I then realized that I had left a large portion of myself there."

"When we were in Kosovo students learned so fast, it's just incredible," Thorson said.

For the International Affairs Office at UNL, helping students and faculty plan and reach their destinations is a job that requires deep knowledge, passion for other cultures, administrative expertise and travel agency savvy. Every year approximately 600 UNL students travel all over the world to study abroad. This year the number is expected to exceed 650.

"We have professors who take students study the classics in Greece. Others go to Spain to learn Spanish. I've helped faculty and students go to China to study early childhood education; and students and faculty going to Vietnam, Egypt, Japan," said Christa Joy, UNL study abroad program director. "We have programs in South America, Europe, Asia -- pretty much all over the world. The stories students tell when they come back are just amazing and it's exciting to be a part of the process."