About Your Peer Ambassadors

Schedule an appointment with a Peer Ambassador!  

Vivian Garcia Is a junior majoring in Mechanical Engineering with a minor in Business Administration. In the spring of 2023, she studied abroad in Turin, Italy with the USAC program which allowed her to work on classes that helped her business minor. During the five months abroad, she got to eat amazing food, make wonderful new friends, and explore most of Italy!
 
Vivian’s adventures spirit has led her to see many new countries like Spain, Belgium, Sweden, and France. She is already planning a trip back to Italy to visit the friends she made in her classes abroad and hopes to visit even more countries while there! In Italy she was able to travel through most of the country and saw all the big cities like Rome, Venus, and Milan. She was even able to see her sister get married on a beautiful island off the coast of Sicily.
 
Vivian loves exploring new places and making new friends! In her off time, you can find her trying a new art median, playing video games, or hammocking on the green!
 

Madeline Smith is a senior studying Spanish and psychology. She will graduate in Spring 2025 and looks forward to continuing her education in either a master's or doctoral program. She studied abroad for a month in Salamanca, Spain during the summer of 2023 where she drank lots of coffee, learned lots of Spanish, and made lots of friends.
 
In the future, she hopes to return to Spain to visit other parts of the country and to see her host family again. Additionally, Madeline wants to travel to other Spanish-speaking countries in South and Central America.
 
In her spare time, Madeline loves to read, drink coffee with friends, crochet, and play with her two cats, Violet and Opal.
 

Lily Wachtel is a junior majoring in Public Health concentrating in Global Health Studies. In the Fall semester of 2023, she was able to study abroad through the UAB exchange with the University of Western Australia (UWA) in Perth, Australia. At UWA, she spent the semester studying subjects including nutrition in global health, indigenous heritage/knowledge, and literature.

Her most cherished aspect of studying abroad was meeting friends from all over the world.
This experience marked Lily's inaugural venture outside the United States, allowing her to explore countries such as Australia, Sri Lanka, and Singapore. In the future, she hopes to continue to travel while working as a Global Disease Epidemiologist

Brooke Stoves is a senior here at UAB, majoring in English Literature. 

She is an avid traveler, having traveled extensively within the US. After several previous visits overseas to Haiti, she spent the spring semester of 2023 in Nottingham, England, studying at the University of Nottingham in the UK.
 
Her love for literature and travel was amplified during her studies and travels in the UK, and she frequently visited areas such as London, Grimsby and Birmingham (UK, that is.) In the future, she hopes to return to the UK, in addition to traveling across Europe and Asia.
 
When she isn't reading, Brooke enjoys crafting, Bossa Nova music from Brazil, and art in various forms. She is looking forward to pursuing further education at UAB after graduation. 

Paige Bowden is a junior majoring in Biology with a minor in Forensic Psychology. In
the Spring 2023 semester, Paige was able to study abroad in Aberystwyth, Wales as a part of the
UAB in Wales program. While she was in Wales, she was able to travel though the many
different places in the United Kingdom including Dublin, Cardiff, and Edinburgh. Paige has been
to many different countries: Bermuda, France, Mexico, and Jamaica. She loves to plan trips, go
to museums, and hopes to travel to Italy next!
 
When she isn’t busy with classes, she enjoys doing puzzles, playing games, and trying
different sweets! After graduation, Paige plans to attend graduate school for a master’s degree in
Forensic Science.
 

Markia Brown is a senior majoring in Anthropology who will be graduating in December 2024. In the fall semester of 2023, she was able to study various anthropological subjects in Thailand through USAC's Chaing Mai program. She spent the entire semester learning about the indigenous people of Thailand, their history and their incredible culture and enjoying their delicious food.
 
While she was in Thailand, she was able to visit many cool places including Wat Phra Singh and several other Buddhist Temples, she got to attend many festivals such as the Chaing Mai Yi Peng festival where she walked with USAC students and staff of the United States Consulate office in the Yi Peng parade. She hopes to visit Thailand again soon in the future.
 
In her free time, she enjoys playing Assassins Creed video games, watching history documentaries, and trying out different cuisines. After graduation, she plans to obtain her Masters degree while studying in Taiwan.