Students and faculty filled the Crimson Promenade Wednesday, September 16 for the Study Abroad Fair, which showcased some of the international learning opportunities for students.

Students explored many different abroad options for a variety of majors and academic programs. European travel options were prominent at the fair, but students also examined the options of traveling to other areas such as Asia or Central America.

Chad Berry, assistant director of Education Abroad, said there are many benefits to studying abroad.

“I think that cross-cultural experience really helps people to grow on a personal level,” he said.

According to the University’s Study Abroad website, there are three types of programs. Faculty-led programs offer UA credit and a bundled-cost with tuition. Full semester exchange programs are available with 29 partnered international universities and offer transfer credit at the cost of UA tuition. Affiliate programs are third-party partners that offer transfer credit in multiple countries, but cost is paid to the affiliate, not the University.

The website also states 75 percent of students in abroad programs traveled to Europe last year, with the top five countries being Spain, Italy, England, Austria and France, in that order. Many students also traveled to Asia or the Middle East and Central America. Students from more than 120 different majors and academic programs were represented in the abroad programs.

“I think it’s really hard to overstate how important it is to expand your horizons, and really to experience life from a perspective outside of America,”  said Brandon Green, a junior studying chemical engineering. “It’s a great way to frame everything you learn because all of a sudden, America isn’t everything, and that really changes things.”

According to Berry, who studied abroad in China during his college career, there is nothing like actually visiting the places you read and hear about and interacting with new people and cultures.