Crossing Borders: A Yearlong Storytelling Project

In 1950 Byron Snyder, a young embassy consul general agreed to include his wife's new-fangled ironing board in their hand luggage on their return trip to Europe. Traveling from California to New York, to Paris, and finally to Frankfurt proved harder than he could have ever imagined.

Across the ocean, as the Iron Curtain was lifted 25 years ago, Ania Dabrowska and Mary Heers taught English as a second language to eager students while forging a friendship and sharing cultures.

Bret Rasmussen turns his passion for snowmobiling into a worldwide business teaching men and women to "Ride Rasmussen Style."

In today’s digital and mobile world, there are so many ways to get the word out about a cause. Some people use social media, others start a podcast or blog, and some take it on the road.

“I didn’t have to compare before to after and make one better than the other. I just could make what I had the best it could be. And it wasn’t comparing to life before Gaylynn passed away and life after and one’s better and one’s worse, it’s while she was here we made the best of what we had and had a lot of fun, and while she’s not here, I can make the best of that time. And they’re separate. You don’t have to compare them.”

Lindsey Boone used to joke that she wanted to have a baseball team when she got married. She always thought she would become a mom and have a big family. But for Boone and her husband, having a baby proved nearly impossible. And even though infertility affects about 15 percent of American couples, it is often something kept private, a monthly heartbreak suffered in silence.

When Jackson Olsen graduated from college, he had every intention of going to law school and becoming a lawyer. But before pursuing those plans, he took a temporary hiatus from being a student and decided to become a teacher instead.

During this next episode in our year-long series Crossing Borders, two university students who crossed state lines before arrived in Utah to discover their differences actually strengthen their friendship.

When refugees and immigrants come to Utah, they bring with them different elements of their culture. As these individuals and families work to establish themselves in their new communities, some choose to open businesses featuring their native food.

In 2014, the Pew Research Center conducted a study of 35,000 Americans called the Religious Landscape Study. They found that about a third of all millennials raised in Mormonism no longer identify with the faith.

At Woodruff Elementary School, more than 60 families require a Spanish translator at parent-teacher conferences. A parent liaison used to do all of them until she discovered a translation club at Utah State University. Three years ago, she partnered with Aggie Translators, which provides the elementary school and other local schools with dozens of free translators.

Mark Grodkowski is a pastry chef. He immigrated from Poland when he was 17, crossing the borders of country and language, creating his American dream. He currently owns and operates Sweetly Divine, a pastry shop and cafe in Logan.

In June 2006 a wildfire on Navajo Mountain destroyed all vegetation resulting in debris and sediment contaminating Beaver Springs, the source of all water for the Navajo Mountain community.

Through the Utah Family Exchange Services program, Aina Koyama , along with 65 other Japanese students, were assigned to live with host families in Utah last summer to experience the American and Utah culture.

While volunteering with Teach For America Jackson went from planning to be an attorney to writing a book about his experiences.

In Tanzania, electricity is not a given, it's a gift. Norman Harrison has brought this gift from Utah to Tanzania. He recently returned from installing solar panels at the Falco Children's Village.

Our Crossing Borders series, crosses the Utah border into Idaho to tell you about the journey of a mother and her transgender son. Through a series of short vignettes, Page Geske and her son Andrew reflect on their relationship through the years as they share about the loss, healing, and freedom they found through their own border crossing—the transition process.

Many borders come with the physical representations of walls, policies and guards. Other borders are less visible and center around ideas and stereotypes. F or some M uslim women, social borders may come from wearing a headscarf .

Phrases like organic, sustainable, eco-friendly, and farm-to-table have been around for a while. The concept of finding healthy and environmentally friendly ways to eat is becoming more popular. More and more, people want to know where their food is coming from, and the process their food undergoes before arriving on their plate.

Facilitated by an International Initiatives Grant through the College of Humanities and Social Sciences, a nine-person research team from Utah State University traveled to Morocco to find their academic objectives spark realizations of global proportions.