Voice!

One thing that was super important to me when I was applying to college was the ease with which I would be able to study abroad. I’m sure that many of you are looking forward to college in order to take many exciting and challenging classes as well as to broaden your intercultural literacy by spending time overseas.

Here at Wes, study abroad is extremely encouraged. As early as freshman year there are meetings about different places that students study, complete with first hand accounts from those who have studied abroad. Students can go abroad as early as the second semester of their sophomore year and as late as the first semester of their senior year, though many of us go some time during our junior year. There are both semester long and year long, single country programs available or you can mix programs and spend one semester in one country and another in a different country. The Office of International Studies here on campus is super helpful in helping to figure out not only how long to go abroad for, but also where to go.

Not only are Wesleyan students encouraged to go abroad in general, but they are also encouraged to push the boundaries and study in unique locations. While the four programs in Paris, Madrid, Bologna, and Regensburg, Germany that Wesleyan faculty run themselves are located in Western Europe, Wesleyan sponsors over 120 other programs in almost every location imaginable. There are great programs in China, Egypt, Ghana, Chile, Peru, Australia, Denmark and so many others. These programs might be ones on which you travel around with a group of American students and have professors hired specially to teach you, direct enrollment courses where you enroll directly into a university in that country or a combination of both. While I studied abroad in Paris on the Vassar-Wesleyan Program in Paris, half of my classes were at the Wesleyan headquarters and half were at Paris VII, a Parisian university. It was a great experience because I got to compare classroom and teaching styles in Paris to ones here in the US and meet cool French students. If for some reason Wesleyan doesn’t offer or sponsor a program in a country where you’d like to study, you can petition to go on a program- with a solid reason for going and a clear itinerary, odds are it’ll be approved.

Once students come back from abroad, they are asked to record their experiences and give suggestions and comments about the programs. This is great for future study-abroaders because in the Office of International Studies there are binders upon binders filled with great information about each program that helps others decide which program is right for them.

Studying abroad was such a great and eye-opening experience, and I encourage you to check out the Office of International Studies website to find out more information about the different programs that are available to Wesleyan students.

Petra Groeneveldt ‘08
Senior Interviewer

The College of Letters (COL) is one of Wesleyan’s many exciting interdisciplinary programs, and one of the main reasons I, for one, chose to come study at Wes. Despite the grandiose name, the COL is organized like most other departments, with many classes open to non-majors, a great series of first-year courses, and an amazing faculty. The COL’s areas of focus are literature, philosophy, and history, with a strong emphasis on foreign language and creative thought. With its interdisciplinary approach, the COL offers a wide range of courses, including “Francophone Uses of America in Literature and Film,” “Dante and Medieval Culture,” and “Theories and Fiction of Androgyny” to name a few from this spring’s course catalog. The COL was also the home of Wesleyan’s most infamous course (no longer offered), “Pornography: Writing of Prostitutes.”
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Wrote for your school newspaper? Always wanted to do some investigative journalism? Just interested in covering some concerts or sports games?

Well, here at Wesleyan, the Argus has it all. The Wesleyan Argus is published twice a week during the academic school year, except for exam periods. Sections ranged from your standard News, Sports, Arts, and Features, to our own comic section and joke section. Wespeaks are Wesleyan’s unique version of a letter to the editor. These pieces can be written by anyone in the Wesleyan community and range from the serious ( for example: campus politics, world politics) to the absurd ( for example: a call to action for more dancing on campus).

Unlike some larger schools, freshmen are welcomed and encouraged to write for the Argus as soon as they come to campus. And, with some dedication and commitment, you can become an editor or columnist early on in your Wesleyan career. People who write and work for the Argus have very varied experiences with high school journalism, some people were editors of their school paper while others, like myself, had never written an article before Wesleyan. But, after writing for four semesters, I was co-editor of the Arts section my Junior Year. Once an editor, you serve on the Argus editorial board, which writes an opinion piece each paper about something related to campus politics, world politics, or issues affecting the Wesleyan community.

Also, one way to be clued into what’s happening at Wesleyan before coming to campus is to read the Argus online. New editions are posted on Tuesdays and Fridays, sometimes late in the afternoon. So stay posted, be aware, and know what is going on before you even step foot on campus! It’s a great way to get in on the conversations as soon as you get here and see all that Wesleyan students are involved in and passionate about.

Happy reading!
Emily Einhorn ‘08
Senior Interviewer

While Wesleyan has terrific sports all around, club sports are a particularly strong facet of athletic life on campus. Many of the club sports have no coach, giving the students the opportunity to really command their own teams. There is a wide range of both types of sports and intensity levels, so you can really find whatever kind of commitment level you’re looking for. For instance, there are multiple ultimate frisbee and club soccer teams that you can choose from depending on your experience level, whether you want to play co-ed, etc.

A great example of this is WesRugby (and I’m not just saying this because I’ve been playing for 4 years). We are a team-taught-team, so seasoned captains run practice and teach the new rookies the ins and outs of the game. Rugby is a particularly complex sport (no one, not even referees, seem to know all the rules) and one that most people haven’t ever played before college, so we’re all learning brand new skills together. To put it simply, rugby is kind of like a mix between soccer and football. The goal is to score a “try”– like a touchdown– by passing the ball to your teammates and running down the field. The way you stop the opposing team from making progress, however, is by tackling them to the ground…without any padding. It may sound like it hurts, but if you do it right it’s actually quite graceful. And plus, what better way to get out your aggression?

A really unique part of rugby is the socializing aspect. Unlike any other sport I’ve encountered, rugby teams traditionally have socials, where the home team hosts the visitors for a party after the game. No matter what’s happened on the field or who won, the teams come together afterwards to socialize and get to know each other as more than just opposing team members.

Last weekend, WesRugby played University of Rhode Island (URI) on our home field. URI is a much larger school and team than Wesleyan, so it wasn’t a huge surprise when they beat us, but we held our own quite well. Two weeks ago, though, we played Trinity College and won by a landslide. Because we have a small team this year, some of our starting players had only just started this season, and boy oh boy did they step it up: one of our tries was scored by someone who was playing her very first game!

Not only is rugby fun to play, it is also fun to watch. Come out to Long Lane field most Saturday mornings in October and April (we play fall and spring seasons), and you’re sure to catch a game in action. This is a sport, whether you’re participating or a spectator, that you don’t want to miss!

Jessie Spector ‘08
Senior Interviewer

While in high school you needed to pack all your academics in the 8-3 block of your day; in college you can learn all night long!! We aren’t talking about pulling an all-nighter on that paper you avoided until the day before it was due.  No, we are referencing Wesleyan’s GREAT variety of night time seminars.  These classes, generally capped at 19 students, run from 7-10pm once a week.  Differing from your standard twice-a-week or three-times-a-week class, these seminars allow you to  get really indepth in the material all at once; a class discussion can go much further when it isn’t interrupted after one hour.  These classes emphasize discussion and student interpretation of the reading material.  Professor’s act as facilitators, rather than lecturers.  Due to its size and time, these classes are intimate and personal.  In this setting it is easy to develop a relationship with both the professor and your fellow classmates.  Since these classes do run a long time, students often bring in baked goods or snacks to share with the class.

Some of our all time favorite night seminars we have taken :

Eastern European Jewish History - A history, religion, and Russian studies course, this class offered students an opportunity to read primary source material and develop a clearer understanding of what life was really like for the Jews living in Eastern Europe.  While “Fiddler on the Roof” painted a rosy picture of shtetl life, this course made it clear early on that history creates a much more complex picture than that.  Some materials were translated into English for the first time for this course, allowing students to become historiographers and determine how to interpret confusing texts.

Animal Minds: The Moral Significance of Animal Cognition - An interesting combination of philosophy majors and biology/medical students, this course examines the contemporary philosophical literature discussing animal cognition, rationality, and the ability to feel pain.  Focusing on biological studies, it allows students to draw conclusions about what these studies really mean and how we should treat animals based on them.

Sixties Politics from Port Huron to Porto Alegra -  In 1962, Tom Hayden, a student activist, wrote the Port Huron Statement, a document which described the societal and political problems of the time, and which served as the manifesto for the activist group, Students for a Democratic Society. What if students today were to write a similar document, detailing the problems of today’s generation? This class examines this idea, as students discuss what has changed since the 60’s and what has stayed the same. After much discussion, students complete a semester-long project in which they attempt to write their own, modern-day statement.

So when you come to college, remember that classes and learning don’t just happen during the day.  In fact, some of the best stuff gets taught at night!

Emily Einhorn ‘08 and Jeff Wong ‘08
Senior Interviewers