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Blogging from abroad

By Mara Kumagai Fink '11
March 11, 2011
Sarah Morrison '12 stands in front of a waterfall she came across while hiking up to the Franz Josef Glacier in New Zealand. Morrison received a $3,500 scholarship to blog about her experiences abroad this semester for Reach the World.

Laurel Ohm '12 spent the weekend horseback riding up a volcano and eating guinea pig for the first time in Ecuador. Sarah Morrison '12 went skydiving and hiked to a glacier in New Zealand last week. Both made sure they took a few minutes to blog about their adventures.

This semester the two St. Olaf globetrotters have paired with organizations to share their stories of life abroad. Ohm was selected as one of 31 bloggers from more than 200 applicants to receive a $200 award to blog for IES Abroad while in Ecuador, while Morrison received a $3,500 Gilman International Scholarship to blog for Reach the World.

Ohm is pursuing her program through the Institute for the International Education of Students (IES). A math, Spanish, and environmental studies major from Madison, Wisconsin, she is attending an Ecuadorian university and living with a host family in Quito this semester. She's aiming to give an honest portrayal of what it’s like to study abroad through her blog, which includes entries about things such as venturing to the Cloud Forest and the equator. "For me, it's an honor to have been selected to blog about my semester in Quito. This is a really great opportunity for me to both keep track of my own experiences and share them with the world," she says.

Morrison's blog audience is a little bit different. An exercise science major from Lee's Summit, Missouri, she is blogging for Reach the World, an organization that pairs the blogs of travelers abroad with elementary school classrooms in the United States so that young students can learn about different ways of life around the world.

Morrison, who is on the University of Otago program through St. Olaf, says that she has always enjoyed working with kids, and this is another opportunity to interact with them. "I hope that by doing this I can inspire some of the kids who read the blog to want to experience and learn about people, nature, places, and cultures outside their own backyard," she says. "I hope even more that some of the kids will want to learn about how their own culture and how they themselves intertwine with the rest of the world in a dynamic relationship."

Both Morrison and Ohm will return to St. Olaf in the fall as seniors. After graduation, Morrison plans to pursue a career in physical therapy and Ohm hopes to spend a year teaching in Asia before heading to graduate school in environmental engineering.

Contact Kari VanDerVeen at 507-786-3970 or vanderve@stolaf.edu.