Free passports helped these Tar Heels explore the world

Aiden Bryant had yet to board an airplane, but when the student from Columbia, North Carolina, learned last year he could earn a passport for free through Carolina’s Phillips Passport Initiative, he jumped at the chance.

“Why not seize the opportunity?” he asked himself.

“Columbia is a very small town,” Bryant said of the coastal community about three hours east of Chapel Hill. “Traveling outside the country is not a common thing to do back home.”

Now a sophomore double-majoring in global studies and business, Bryant spent a month this past summer in Thailand for a Burch research seminar on public health entrepreneurship.

He and his classmates visited recycling plants, an HIV clinic and a coffee plantation and traveled within the country, from Bangkok to rural villages.

“The exciting part was getting to see a new place and learning about their culture,” said Bryant, who was struck by the hospitality he received and how community-oriented Thailand was.

The Phillips Passport Initiative, a program of the Phillips Ambassadors, is now in its fourth year of providing funding to undergraduate students to obtain their first U.S. passport. The deadline for this fall’s cycle is Oct. 31. Committing to studying abroad isn’t a requirement. But many students who take advantage of the initiative later do so and receive resources on ways to study, intern, perform service or research globally from the initiative, which collaborates with the Study Abroad office, UNC College of Arts and Sciences and UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School’s global programs.

Bryant (far right) has plans to study abroad again at Carolina and would like to go to Brazil. (Submitted photo)

The initiative provides students with the steps needed to get their passport, sophomore Kinlee Reece said. “I got my picture taken in the Student Stores and then printed out my forms and went to the Post Office. It was pretty seamless,” said Reece, a Blue Sky scholar from Mount Airy, North Carolina, nearly two hours northwest of Chapel Hill near the Virginia border.

Like Bryant, Reece spent part of her summer enrolled in a Burch seminar. She and her classmates split time between London and Berlin and earned political science credit studying nationalism, identity and responses to immigration in historical and current times.

“It really had a lot of my interests in one short class,” said Reece, who’s double-majoring in political science and journalism and is interested in attending law school or exploring political communication as a career field.

She also enjoyed seeing the sights in both cities, including shows in London, and was eager to report back to her family.

“They were super excited for me to go,” Reece said. “When I was there, I would call them and they’re like, ‘Wow, this is so cool.’ It’s just a random summer, and I’m exploring all these new places. They were super happy for me.”

Reece’s seminar in London and Berlin aligned with her career interests. (Submitted photo)

Both Reece and Bryant made friendships they maintain today from their summers abroad, and they each are eyeing more international travel.

Reece would like to visit France, and Bryant, a Portuguese minor, is interested in a study abroad opportunity in Brazil next school year.

Carolina, which ranks ninth nationally in study abroad participation, has a Global Guarantee that promises an accessible global education to all students. The initiative is an example of that in action, one that takes care of a basic requirement for international travel.

Bryant encourages students considering getting their passport to take advantage of the free resource. It opened up the world for him and can kick-start exciting journeys for others.

“Once you actually start reading the directions and figure out what you need to do, it’s not that hard,” he said. “It seemed daunting, but it wasn’t.”