In graduate school, a friend of mine had just returned from studying in Malaysia for a year. Her stories of the culture, food, and living there entranced me (yes, even the durian). Since then, I advise study abroad students who want a unique experience to look at programs in Malaysia (you included!).

Do you want to encourage your small travelers to get excited about change and exploration? We've all had those moments when entering into the new was scary. I've got a lovely new children's book to share with you that addresses this feeling - and shows how wonderful accepting and exploring change can be.

A few weeks ago, I found myself in the outskirts of Nairobi, Kenya, in Kibera and Mathare, Africa's largest slums and home to some young men and women whose world is riddled with painfully common gang and sexual violence. It's a constant struggle to access clean water, find toilets. Their families live on next to nothing, but if a student here wants to go to secondary school, the government requires they pay school fees.

From the Adirondacks to the Cascades, from the Wind River Range to the Catskills, from the Sangre de Cristos to the Wasatch, mountain landscapes across the United States offer views and vistas that hold ideas of change and of what is lasting. For musicians Amy White and Al Petteway, the southern Appalachians and the Blue Ridge in North Carolina form both inspiration and backdrop for what they create.