Around the World with William & Mary

The Institute of International Education just named William & Mary as the top public institution in study abroad participation.  Nearly half of W&M undergraduates have a summer, semester, or year-long experience abroad while attending William & Mary.  When I’m presenting information sessions, or out on the road, people always ask me where you can study abroad through W&M and the answer is truly anywhere.  The Reves Center for Global Education (William & Mary’s study abroad center) has several tuition-exchange programs with foreign universities.  But no matter how many such programs we sponsor, they will never meet the needs of 5800 undergraduate students.  For instance, I wanted to study abroad in London (sadly English is the only language in which I have confidence in my speaking abilities) and I wanted to do a summer internship rather than take classes.  So I went to the Reves center during my sophomore year and asked them what do to.  They provided me with brochures and websites for various programs and told me to research those programs and then meet with them again.

Through my own research and advice from my Reves Center counselor, I selected the University of Rochester’s summer program in London.  The program included 12 weeks living in a London flat and an internship in the academic area of my choice.  As a government major, I asked for a political internship of some form.  I ended up being placed with an anti-EU think tank run by an MP (Member of Parliament).  I spent the summer updating constituent databases, researching articles on the EU and England’s participation in it, planning a rally with guest of honor Lady Margaret Thatcher (the then Chancellor of William & Mary) and attending sessions in the House of Commons.  I even got to have drinks in the House of Commons Bar and the House of Lords Bar (something that seems really fantastic to an American citizen living in London).  I spent the summer living half a block from Regents Park and I spent my weekends traveling to Stratford-upon-Avon, Oxford, Cambridge, and Scotland.  I also visited Sir Christopher Wren’s cathedrals and burial places and William & Mary’s castle homes (a W&M student cannot go to London and not visit such sites).  At the summer’s end, I packed up and headed to Italy for three weeks to complete my Monroe Scholar project on Italian culture and dining.

So William & Mary took me from Iowa to Virginia and from Virginia to London, Scotland, and Italy.  Not bad for a corn-fed girl!

– Wendy Livingston