What better place start things off than in Bonn, Germany: headquarters of Deutsche Welle, Germany’s international broadcasters, and my home for nearly five months last spring.

By the time this column is published, I’ll hopefully be recovered from jet lag and have partially regained my yearlong-dormant German skills. I’ll have retraced my favorite path along the Rhine River and have made my way to James Joyce, a lively Irish pub in Bonn’s city center.

Nostalgic sentiments aside — I’ll save the rest for my blog — my return to Bonn also reminds me of the indispensable experience I gained from studying abroad here last year.

To the advantage of KU students, study abroad ranks high among the University’s priorities. The University ranks 11th nationally in study abroad participation, according to a report by The Institute of International Education.

Over 25 percent of KU undergraduates have completed study abroad programs. A wide variety of programs and readily available financial aid makes it possible for many students.

For an aspiring foreign correspondent such as myself, the benefits of studying abroad seem obvious. I returned to Lawrence with improved language skills, months of travel experience and a fresh global perspective.

Yet participation in a study abroad program provides benefits outside of academic and career development. A study published in 2004 found that 96 percent of students who had studied abroad noticed an increase in self-confidence. Ninety-seven percent of those surveyed said studying abroad served as a catalyst for increased maturity.

I couldn’t agree more. There are few experiences I’ve had as liberating — and overwhelming — as when I stepped off the plane at Frankfurt International Airport last March. Allow me to explain.

With the exception of driving between Topeka and Lawrence, I had never traveled by myself until my transcontinental flight from Kansas City to Frankfurt. I landed in Germany feeling tired, anxious and alone.

After some initial confusion at the train station in Frankfurt, I was on a two-hour train ride to Bonn. I arrived with a backpack— the airline had lost my luggage and it wouldn’t arrive for another week — and the address of the Bonn University’s International Club where I was to check in.

I filled out the paperwork, picked up some handouts, and received my housing assignment. Once I was finished, a driver dropped me off at my apartment. After 24 hours of constant traveling, I had finally made it. In a sense, I was home.

I matured quickly that first day. The sudden realization of being 4500 miles from home in an unfamiliar country without friends or family would have the same effect on anyone.

I also noticed an immediate rise in my self-confidence. Speaking a language I only partially knew with people I had never met required it. The language-learning experience was often frustrating and sometimes even embarrassing.

In the end it was all part of the study abroad experience, the same one that allowed me to return to Bonn as mature and confident as ever.