Sophomore Erin Campbell will be going to Australia in less than five months. When she attended the Study Abroad Fair last year out of curiosity, she said she didn’t know what to ask because she didn’t know where she wanted to go. But that didn’t last long.

“I picked up a brochure on a bunch of different places that I was interested in and Australia struck me,” Campbell said in an e-mail. “(The) Study Abroad Fair could entice or deter your decision in studying abroad,” she said. Finding out prices, class offerings and the length of some of the programs could turn people away from studying abroad, Campbell said.

Nine months ago the Council Fire Room was reserved for this year’s Study Abroad Fair, said Cheryl Lochner-Wright, a study abroad coordinator.

The Center for International Education is responsible for finding peer advisers to work and set up the fair and do promotions, Lochner-Wright said.

Junior Krissa White, one of the peer advisers for the Lismore, Australia, program also helped find people to work at the fair.

White didn’t go to the Study Abroad Fair before she went abroad, but said she is looking forward to working at the fair this year.

“I just get really excited when people show interest in studying abroad,” she said.

Lochner-Wright is also excited about the fair. “It’s always a very energizing event,” she said.

This year’s fair will have a little something extra, Lochner-Wright said. Representatives from partner universities usually visit, but this year they were asked to try to plan their visit at the same time as the Study Abroad Fair, she said.

There will be two program coordinators from a school in Costa Rica from the, an administrator from the exchange program at King Alfred’s college in Winchester, England, as well as a representative from Murdoch University in Perth, Australia.

“(It’s) different to have the receiving end represented right at the fair,” Lochner-Wright said.

According to the CIE’s Web site, UW-Eau Claire has 23 international study abroad programs representing 16 countries, plus a winterim program in Vietnam.

The fair could help decide which program is best for you, White said.

“Even if you’re not interested or don’t think it’s your thing, the fair will show you that (there are) all different types of people who go,” she said. “It would help them realize that any person with any type of interests could go.”

White said students should ask anything they have on their mind about studying abroad – it could be the deciding factor on whether they go.

“There’s no dumb question,” she said.

Students often go to the fair knowing where they want to go and discover differences between the different programs offered for each country, Lochner-Wright said.

She also said students can get their misconceptions corrected. For example, they think they have to go to an English-speaking country to study abroad when they really don’t, she said.

Although Campbell is nervous about some aspects of studying abroad, she is looking forward to the opportunity.

“The only reasons I am apprehensive about studying abroad are my family, friends and my boyfriend,” she said. “I don’t think the fair could help me out in that aspect because these feelings will always be there. However, I’m sure there are people that can relate to my feelings and give advice on how to cope.”

Despite everyone she will be leaving behind, Campbell views studying abroad as a valuable experience.

“It may mean missing out on things back home and (at) school but I think growing as a person and in one’s independence outweighs the sacrifices,” she said.