Ebenezer (“Eben”) Aidoo, PhD student in the UI Department of Communication Studies, had several admissions offers from other graduate programs, but chose the University of Iowa “…because of the outstanding teaching and learning resources available for graduate students, reasonable cost of living, stellar health insurance package for graduate teaching and research assistants, and the vibrant academic community in Iowa City.” Learn more about Aidoo below.

Hao Zhou, a third-year MFA student in film and video production, recently added a Student Academy Award to the list of film awards and nominations he has received over the years. As the University of Iowa’s first recipient of this honor, he won the Gold Medal award in the category of Alternative/Experimental for his film Frozen Out. According to Zhou, this film reflects on the vulnerable nature of relationships, notions of home, feelings of exclusion/ being “frozen out,” and the determination to keep moving forward.

Born and raised in Brazil, Gustavo Campos is a fourth-year finance student from the University of Iowa Tippie College of Business who will start his career at the London office of Jefferies Group LLC, an American multinational independent investment bank and financial services company, after graduation in May 2022. He will be working as a sales and trading analyst in the emerging markets desk. Gustavo says he was drawn to this career path by a combination of extracurricular activities, internships, and the fact that he was born and raised in an emerging country.

As an undergraduate student at the University of Iowa, Elisha Smiley (BBA accounting ’01; MAc accounting ’02) studied abroad in Dijon, France. It was a semester filled with learning to adapt, meeting new friends, and expanding her worldview, but perhaps most impactful was the connection she made to food. This connection helped to spark a career change from accounting to that of pastry chef and instructor. Learn more about Elisha’s inspiring journey below.

Lauren Smiley (Honors BA journalism and mass communication; Spanish ’05) is an award-winning freelance journalist (https://laurensmiley.contently.com/) based in San Francisco, California. Writing for publications such as WIRED, The Atlantic, and The New York Times, Smiley feels her study abroad experience in Guadalajara, Mexico, as an undergraduate at Iowa helped her build skills that contribute to her success writing in-depth magazine stories—namely navigating the arrival in a new community with grace and resourcefulness. We caught up with Marion, Iowa, native Smiley to learn more about her study abroad experience and how it shaped her personally and professionally.