University of Iowa (UI) student Paras Bassuk was selected as one of this year’s 32 American Rhodes Scholars, making them the 23rd UI recipient. This fall, Bassuk will continue their studies at the University of Oxford in England, although this isn’t the first time Bassuk has pursued education abroad.

Bassuk previously studied abroad through two UI programs in Spain and Argentina during the summer and fall of 2023.

“My experience studying abroad gives me so much confidence to take this next step and pursue postgraduate study at the University of Oxford,” Bassuk said.

Bassuk said they feel more prepared to be a Rhodes Scholar due to the experiences and skills they gained studying abroad.

“I feel emboldened to try something totally new because I did it twice and it was really fulfilling,” Bassuk said. “Obviously, this won’t be the same experience as studying abroad, but I think it taught me to find comfort in discomfort and newness.”

One of Bassuk’s biggest motivators to study abroad as an undergraduate was to further their Spanish language studies.

“I was really looking for a way to take what I had learned, and the background I had from hearing Spanish growing up, and use that to see more of the world,” Bassuk said. “I’m going to college in my hometown (Bassuk grew up in Iowa City), so the opportunities to fly further from the nest have not come up by nature. I decided I wanted to explore a new place, to use my language and enrich it in an immersive way.”

Emily Brown, senior advisor and program coordinator for UI Study Abroad, helped Bassuk find the USAC Madrid summer program before studying abroad for a full semester through the SIT Argentina Social Movements and Human Rights program.

The USAC Madrid program is a summer, four-week program in Madrid, Spain, where students with varying Spanish proficiency can improve their language skills.

“I was lucky to talk to Emily at the right moment to get her insight about how I could be prepared for the semester-long program,” Bassuk said. “It felt a little overzealous to do back-to-back programs, but I did it. I spent a month in Spain for the second half of the summer, and it was wonderful.”

Through their studies in Argentina, Bassuk got to travel through rural parts of the country while meeting multiple social activism groups. Students in the SIT program were given the option to do either an independent study or an internship. Bassuk completed an internship with the Asociación Civil Mocha Celis.

Bassuk worked in the access-to-work sector of the organization, which facilitates students who are finishing high school to pursue further education, work on their curricula vitae, apply to jobs, and take advantage of employment programs in Argentina.

They emphasized how learning about another culture while being physically immersed in it gave them a new perspective on what’s being accomplished around the world.

“That type of work, where your studies aren’t some abstraction of something so far away, but you’re physically there, is what motivated me to look abroad to further my education,” Bassuk said.

Bassuk said their study abroad experience offered a great introduction to law and politics on an international scale.

“In terms of global experience, it was my first introduction into that,” Bassuk said. “That comparative cross-cultural study is something that I hope to continue while at Oxford.”

Studying abroad at Iowa allowed Bassuk to pursue and achieve multiple academic goals related to each field of study they’re pursuing, while also piquing their interests.

“At Iowa, I’ve had the opportunity to explore a lot of disciplines under the umbrella of psychology, and I came into the Rhodes application process with a very open mind about what I might study in the future,” Bassuk said.

Bassuk will graduate in May 2025, with a degree in psychology and a Spanish minor. They will study at the University of Oxford for two years, hoping to study anthropology and public policy.

“I’m going into an academic system that is totally different from the University of Iowa, and I don’t know what that will entail for me. However, I have some proof in studying abroad that I can be prepared for whatever it may bring.”