Creative Thought Travels

Congratulations to Britney Smart for receiving the Fall 2014 Public Health Academic Award from the Danish Institute for Study Abroad! Below is write up from DIS on Britney’s outstanding achievement:

Academic Excellence Award
Each semester, DIS recognizes one outstanding student from the Public Health program with an Award of Academic Excellence. It is reserved for a student who has distinguished her- or himself through diligence, commitment, academic performance, and ideally a student who contributes to a good, collaborative learning environment in class. Britney Smart (public health, anthropology major) was recognized for her academic achievement during her semester at DIS. Britney conducted a semester research project for her core course Health Delivery and Prioritization in Northern Europe where she interviewed and wrote a paper and presentated with two classmates on the Danish Healthy Cities Network (part of the WHO Healthy Cities Network). Britney indicated that she was interested in social justice issues and learning how culture affects opinions and behaviors regarding health – she had the opportunity to examine these areas in Denmark as well on her course-integrated study tour to Helsinki and Riga.  

The award was presented at the Public Health program concluding dinner attended by faculty, program staff and students. Susie Bondorf, the Public Health core course faculty member presented the certificate and award check of $300 to Britney to enhance/invest in her studies and said: “Britney is a bright and attentive student, who has shown great academic and social leadership throughout the semester. She is very quick-witted and understands where the faculty is heading with a question.  She has a reflective mind and is not afraid to speak it, and is often the first to raise her hand in class. Socially, Britney showed great enthusiasm and initiative on study tours as well as in class. She ran, and was elected, for class representative.”

Britney also excelled in the following courses: Epidemiology: Danish Case Studies, Public Health Implications of Modern Lifestyles, Public Health Ethics.

The start of a new semester means NEW STUDENT BLOGGERS!

Jonni Lynn ’16 (Skidmore in Paris) and Olivia Gramprie’16 (SIT: Tanzania/Zanzibar) are our newest student bloggers!

Are you blogging abroad?! Let us know and we can share your blog too!

International Education Week is a joint initiative of the U.S. Department of State and the U.S. Department of Education. According to the Department of Sate’s website, this is a week to celebrate and highlight programs and initiatives that “prepare Americans for a global environment and attract future leaders from abroad to study, learn, and exchange experiences in the United States”. Well, Skidmore College certainly has a lot to celebrate!

• Nearly 60% of each graduating class studies off campus

• Skidmore was ranked 2nd in the U.S. in the list of Top 40 Baccalaureate Institutions by Mid-Length Duration of Study Abroad (students spending a semester abroad) in the most recent Institute of International Education’s (IIE) annual Open Doors Report

• Each year we welcome students from all over the world to pursue their undergraduate degree at Skidmore. In fact, 10% of this year’s incoming class are international students!

The faculty and staff and Skidmore also add to the Global landscape here. Each semester we have faculty researching, writing, teaching and gaining international experience  abroad that they then bring back to the campus.

Here are a list of events we’ll be having throughout the week to recognize International Education Week: http://www.skidmore.edu/ocse/events/iew.php

Off-Campus Study & Exchanges is pleased to announce the winners of the 2014 OCSE Photo Contest. OCSE received over 200 photos from students that studied off-campus during the 2013-14 academic year. Photos were submitted in one of two categories, Student Experience and Sense of Place. A first-place winner was selected for each category. A Best of Show award was also given for the best overall photo. Here are the winners!

Winner of the “Student Experience” category.
“Identifying Fish at 100ft” was taken by Emily Hendry while studying on the SFS program in the Turks & Caicos.

Winner of the “Sense of Place” category.
“Water Delivery in the Medina” was taken by Lauren Bosche, who studied abroad on the International Honors Program.

Winner of Best in Show!
“Feria en la calle” was taken by Dan Plumer while studying on the Skidmore in Spain program.

Congratulations to all the winners and thank you to everyone who submitted photos! It was such a pleasure to see all that you experienced abroad. We’ll make sure to upload all of the photos to our website in the coming days.

We’ve extended the application deadline for Skidmore in Spain to October 15! In honor of this exciting news, I asked our staff in Madrid and the recently returned Skidmore students who studied in Spain to tell me WHY students should choose Spain…

Top Ten (or 13) reasons to study in Spain this spring

1. In Spain, spring starts in February
2. The opportunity to travel a lot on weekends because of “puentes.”
3. Great support from staff that will help you find any internships or extracurricular that suits you
4. The building’s architecture and art is for public consumption!
5. Festival time! In the spring semester you’ll be there for Dos de Mayo, San Isidro, among other celebrations
6. Host families that genuinely care about your well-being and help you explore the culture
7. Tapas! free, delicious food! (“tapas” at traditional “bars” that are served for free when you order a drink)
8. Madrid is one of the most gorgeous cities in the world
9. The metro system is the best in the world!
10. Madrid never sleeps. There’s always something to do.
11. You can take a glassblowing class!
12. Learn what the words “guai” and “mola” mean.
13. Madrileños are sweet and welcoming people

Stop by Starbuck 202 to learn more about this program. You can apply online here!