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Riverland Community College, founded in 1996, plays a vital role in southeastern Minnesota’s workforce development and education. With campuses in Austin, Albert Lea, and Owatonna, it offers diverse programs and was recognized as an Emerging Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI) in 2024. The college is committed to diversity, equity, and inclusion, supporting all students, especially its growing Hispanic population.

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The Fund for Education Abroad expands access to study abroad for financially needy, underrepresented U.S. students through scholarships, mentorship, and alumni support, helping diversify international education and empower first-generation and minority students to achieve academic, professional, and personal growth through transformative global experiences.

According to the Institute of International Education’s 2025 Open Doors Report, in the 2023-2024 academic year, there were 298,180 undergraduate students who studied abroad. Of that number, 12.2% were Hispanic or Latinx.

Fund for Education Abroad is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization that was founded in 2010 with the mission of expanding access to the life-changing experience of study abroad. Since our founding, FEA has awarded over $4.9 million to over 1,400 undergraduate students pursuing study abroad experiences, with an emphasis on supporting students who face barriers to participation in study abroad. To date, 85% of FEA Scholars are people of color, 80% are first-generation college students, and 35% are current or former community college students. All of the awarded scholars have financial need, and many would not be able to make their study abroad programs possible without the aid of scholarships like FEA. In our most recent application cycle, which was for students who are studying abroad in  the Spring 2026 semester, 24% of awarded FEA Scholars are Hispanic or Latinx – double the percentage represented in the national survey of study abroad students.

While the numbers are important metric by which to gauge our work, the human stories behind them are perhaps more powerful.

Paola Campos studied abroad in South Korea as an FEA Scholar in Spring 2024. Paola is a first-generation student originally from Mexico, who in 2024 was a Mathematics major with aspirations to pursue a graduate program in applied statistics or data science. Prior to leaving for South Korea, Paola said, “We don’t have a lot of offerings in [statistics or data science] courses at my home university, so having the opportunity to enroll in those courses while abroad will make me a more competitive applicant and will allow me to learn new skills that I wouldn’t have been able to learn otherwise.”

In addition to providing funding, FEA also provides a blogging platform for  our awarded scholars to share about their experiences abroad on our website. Paola documented her journey at Yonsei University through her blog, regaling us with tales of adapting to a more lecture-heavy teaching style, getting to know the campus cat, and developing a sense of belonging that was dependent not on her environment, but on her own self-confidence.