AU students studying in Madrid, Spain, this semester were not hurt when bombs struck a train station there during the morning rush hour last Thursday.
"They're fine. They're doing very, very well," said Maria Caballero, director of the AU Abroad program in Madrid.
The AU students were told to stay home after the attack happened. However, they went on a scheduled weekend trip to Portugal and returned from there Sunday night, she said.
The students' schedules quickly returned to normal. "Classes resumed, internships also," Caballero said.
AU Abroad has emergency procedures in place in each city where AU students study, said Amy Morrill-Bijeau, the program's associate director.
When the attack happened, program officials in Madrid contacted AU and the U.S. Embassy in Spain and accounted for all the students in the program.
"We made sure that students were able to get through to their family and loved ones," Bijeau said, despite the fact that phone lines in Madrid "were not as free as normal."
There is a lot of communication that goes on between different officials, she said.
"In any emergency and surprise situation, you're making up your response to the situation as it develops."
"We've also got connections to experts on the ground," such as professors and State Department officials, Bijeau said. Study-abroad program officials from colleges around the country regularly communicate through e-mail about mundane matters and emergencies, she added.
Caballero said she has seen no sign of students having been hurt psychologically by the train station attack.
"Until now there have not been questions," she said.
Bijeau, who said she has been communicating regularly with Caballero, said that people in Europe have reached out to students in the Madrid program. They were offered a free lunch while in Portugal, and "others were reaching out to them through a hug," she said.
"I think the feeling of our students is calmer, I think is also similar to what happened in the U.S. on Sept. 11 [2001]," Bijeau said. "Now I think there's a sense of camaraderie and bonding that's in the group"
