Newswise — The sign on Associate Dean Laura McKeon's office in Hopkins Hall is simple and direct: "Go Away!" It isn't meant to be rude, it is the best advice she as director of International Study can give to students about taking advantage of the college's wide array of study away options. It's a bit of advice that for many students will define an important part of their Williams College experience.
"I swore before I left that I would not be one of those people who comes back from studying abroad swearing that it 'changed my life,'" says Melinda Salaman, a junior who is spending the year at the Williams-Exeter program at Oxford. "I was pretty sure that was a dramatic overstatement. But the truth is, at least for me, it really has."
In many ways, Williams takes a unique approach to studying abroad, one that McKeon describes with pride as equitable. When students go abroad, students on financial aid are able to take it with them if they choose to go. "If they can be here, they can be somewhere else too," she says. "As much as possible, it is not an elitist activity," she says.
And an astonishing number of students take advantage of it. For the 2008-2009 academic year, 64 students spent the entire year abroad. An additional 74 spent the fall away, and 89 went for the spring. The overwhelming majority of those were juniors, though a handful of second semester sophomores and first semester seniors go abroad. That's a total of 227 students who went away, or about 44 percent of the junior class.
The most popular option was England, with 47 students. The next highest were Spain (24), France (23), Italy (19), China (17), and Argentina (16).
The process of choosing the right study abroad program begins at the very start of sophomore year, when McKeon has a table at the sophomore orientation session. Through the fall, she holds information sessions about going abroad, along with some with a regional focus that include professors and students who have returned from programs to help fill in the details.
The next step are personal meetings in groups of three in McKeon's office, which she uses "to explain the absolute nuts and bolts" of the process. In addition to handling the administrative tasks of going abroad, McKeon also has to keep track of an ever-changing universe of programs. The college has approved over 200 programs, and keeps tabs on them. She does this with the help of the Study Abroad Advisers Group of New England, which includes her peers at similar colleges. The group meets twice a year. "And we talk," she says.
Before she began her career in administration, McKeon had earned a Ph.D. in medieval art at the University of Chicago, with an emphasis on medieval art. For several years she taught medieval and Northern Renaissance art at Lake Forest College in Illinois, but she soon got a case of wanderlust. She hit the road, and traveled around India, Nepal, Burma, and Bali. She later began work as a director of the College Year in Nepal program for the University of Wisconsin, and eventually came to Williams in 1990.
She uses her experience to help students find the right option. There are broad categories of ways to go. Students can enroll directly at a foreign university, or at a school with a program run by an American institution, or a cultural immersion program. Each has its own set of challenges and rewards -- directly attending a foreign school is usually best only for the most "adventurous" students, while some programs can lead a student to find themselves abroad in a group with a bunch of other Americans.
"Every student can find the kind of program that fits," McKeon said.
For many students, the right choice is one of the programs Williams runs itself. These include the Williams-Mystic program, a one-semester interdisciplinary ocean and coastal studies program that integrates marine science, maritime history, ocean policy, and literature. And McKeon's office is also helping guide the nascent "Williams in Africa" program, a one semester experiential learning initiative.
But the college's most prestigious off-campus option is the Williams-Exeter Programme. This is a year-long program of study run in collaboration with Exeter College at Oxford University, and which since 1985 has given select students the opportunity to experience being full-time students at one of the world's major universities. It is a selective program: McKeon said they usually receive about 50 solid applications for the program, and only 26 are accepted.
Melinda Salaman '11, was drawn to the program because of its reputation for intensity, and she relished the challenge. She said the program's emphasis on tutorials -- in which students work in pairs with a professor -- has helped her "to be more critical in my thinking and concise in my writing."
She said the adjustment to life across the pond was easier than expected. "Honestly, I was quite scared before I left the U.S. for Oxford, but I think a lot of that was motivated by a fear of the unknown," she says. "Now that I've actually experienced it, I love it."
Burge Abiral '11, wanted to find an option that would fit in with her major.
"I like traveling in general so I guess I've always had the idea in the back of my mind," she says. "Being an anthropology major encouraged me to consider programs in which I could do fieldwork and independent research to gain some experience."
She settled on the International Honors Program on Rethinking Globalization, which features a year of intense traveling in Tanzania, India, and New Zealand, and Mexico. The course is a comparative look at globalization through a variety of disciplines, including anthropology, ecology, environmental policy, international development, and economics.
Some students may not find what they are looking for among the approved options, so they have the option of proposing their own. McKeon said she asks students to do their own legwork on other options. In general, she asks that they say close to State Department guidelines concerning safety (she recently turned down a petition to study in Nepal because of political unrest there).
Once students have narrowed down their choice, they meet with McKeon one on one. By early March, they need to file a "pink petition," a form that outlines their intentions abroad. From there, the applications go to the Committee on Academic Standing for approval. In late April, McKeon holds a "pre-departure" meeting, in which they go over how to keep up with their paperwork and tips about health and safety.
Upon their return, students are asked to complete an "Evaluation of Study Abroad" form. It asks about the academic program ("Compare with Williams, e.g. quality of instruction, challenge, course content and selection, library facilities, access to and interest of faculty, evaluation and grading"), language skills, costs, pre-trip orientation and background, and extracurricular aspects ("please comment on your adjustment to the new culture and your degree of integration"). These reports are kept on file, and become a part of the stack of resources available for underclassmen as they make their choice.
Students come back with a variety of takes on their experience. Abiral, whose program included lots of travel, said she missed routine comforts of staying in one place, and having a room, a work-out schedule, and friends.
On whether they would recommend it, the students are clear. "Studying abroad is a great opportunity to get out of the purple bubble for awhile," says Glenn Yong '11, who is studying at the London School of Economics. "The benefits to this work two ways -- while you get to live and study in a larger environment, you also learn to appreciate the support and intimacy that Williams offers."
McKeon also adds that the experience isn't just about expanding one's educational horizons. These kinds of programs have concrete, real-world applications. "This is practical," she said. "It is no longer possible for a student to just be a Williams student...in a global society, job interviewers will want to know about your international experience and your ability to work in other cultures."
Founded in 1793, Williams College is the second oldest institution of higher learning in Massachusetts. The college’s 2,000 students are taught by a faculty noted for the quality of their teaching and research, and the achievement of academic goals includes active participation of students with faculty in their research. Students' educational experience is enriched by the residential campus environment in Williamstown, Mass., which provides a host of opportunities for interaction with one another and with faculty beyond the classroom. Admission decisions are made regardless of a student’s financial ability, and the college provides grants and other assistance to meet the demonstrated needs of all who are admitted.
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