The College of William and Mary….in Washington D.C.

If you have been reading this blog pretty avidly, you probably have realized that W&M students have a huge array of opportunities available to them during their time here- from being involved in one of the over 400 campus organizations to studying abroad to participating in a Model UN conference in Taipei (so excited for the last one!). One adventure available to a lucky 18 or so W&M students each semester is aptly termed “The William and Mary in D.C. Program”.

Each semester, a different William and Mary professor travels up to D.C. with a group of W&M students and presents a topic of his/ her choice. These students take two classes with this professor as he/ she shares their enthusiasm of this topic while blending it in with all that D.C. has to offer. Additionally, my personal favorite part of this program, allows students to participate in an internship of their choosing for about 35 hours a week while in D.C.

Many of you, especially those of you from the D.C. area, must be asking “Why would I do this? I’ve lived in the D.C. area for [insert years here/ my entire life]!!!!” As a student from a city in Maryland not far from D.C., I thought the same thing but the ability to live, work, and study in D.C. like an insider and the huge plethora of opportunities available in the city overwhelmed me. Next semester, the topic of the program is “International Politics in Economic Hard Times”, taught by Professor Cheng in the Government and International Relations departments, and I can’t wait to take his classes, which fit in perfectly to my International Relations and Economics double majors.

So, as someone who started off as a skeptic about the program, I have now become one of it’s largest supporters and cannot wait to embark on my incredible semester adventure of D.C. And although I don’t have an internship in place yet, I know all of the resources that the College has dedicated to this program will ensure that the internship I do obtain will be more than suitable to my personal tastes. I can’t wait to begin this amazing William and Mary adventure…. or any other one for that matter!

Salil Singhal, Class of 2012