Concordia Exchange Program Brings Irvine Student to Seward

When Megan Clift left Concordia University Irvine last spring to travel home to Bend, Oregon, she said goodbye to her friends thinking she would be studying abroad in Australia this fall. She planned to take part in the Around-The-World Semester program offered by Concordia Irvine. 

In late June, however, Clift was notified that her housing was dropped and the study abroad trip to Australia was cancelled.

“I thought maybe God wants me to go somewhere else,” said Clift. “I still wanted to do something different for the fall semester.”

She’s heard a rumor that there was an exchange program within the Concordia University System and that’s how she ended up in Nebraska.

“I’d visited some of the other Concordias when I was in high school, but I hadn’t been to Nebraska,” Clift said. “I learned Jen Furr, a family friend, was at Concordia Nebraska so I contacted her.”

Concordia Nebraska averages one incoming visiting student every three years, so setting up the exchange required extensive cooperation between the two universities. 

“We have an alumnus, Dr. Gilbert Fuggit ‘01, dean of students at Irvine, who helped set things up for Megan,” said Jennifer Furr, director of alumni and university relations. “I just connected the registrar there with the registrar here and they worked out the details.”

The reciprocity agreement within the Concordia University System arranges for visiting students to pay tuition at their home institution while paying the room and board charge of the host institution.

For Megan Clift, the exchange gave her the new experience she desired and an opportunity to study in an entirely new atmosphere. From Australia to Nebraska – she’s experiencing a different kind of “outback!”