The yellow class of 2021 has been waiting patiently all year for their study abroad dreams to come true, and it’s finally happening! First-year Journeys are less than two weeks away, and you can feel the excitement in the air. The first-year dorms are full of students brushing up on their Spanish or French, deciding what clothes to bring, and trying to figure out how much they can fit in a single carry-on bag. In two weeks, Agnes Scott students will be having adventures in ten different countries across the world.
Photo courtesy of Esha Clements
As part of Agnes’s new Summit curriculum that focuses on global learning and leadership development, Journeys is a week-long cultural immersion experience that every first-year takes part in. The Journeys program is part of Global 102, a specialized course that focuses on global awareness within the context of a specific destination and topic. The courses this year include topics from a variety of disciplines, with course titles such as “Literature, Film, and Art in the Context of Dictatorship (Chile)” and “Ecology, Environment, and the Transition to the European Union (Croatia).”
My Global 102 class is titled “Postcolonial Martinique in a Global Context”, and we’re traveling to Fort-de-France, Martinique. We’ve studied colonial history, theories of globalization, and contemporary global issues. During our Journey, we’re scheduled to visit an active volcano, tour an empress’s estate, take a local dance class, learn from Martinican artisans at a market, and more. After we return, we’ll spend our class reflecting on our experiences and learning how to go forward in globally-minded way.
Photo of Martinique via MJO / Pixabay
The Journeys program has been part of Agnes Scott’s curriculum for three years, ever since the Summit initiative began in 2015. Summit programming aims to “reinvent the liberal arts for the 21st century,” and seems to be succeeding so far. Agnes and the new curriculum have been featured in the Chronicle of Higher Education, the Princeton Review’s Best 382 Colleges, and the US News’s list of Most Innovative Schools in the Country.
Photo via Agnes Scott College / Youtube
There are a lot of great things about Summit, but 2021 Scottie’s Angels are most excited about first-year Journeys. This year, students will be traveling to Central Europe, Chile, Croatia, the Galapagos, Ghana, Guatemala, New Orleans, Iceland, Jamaica, Martinique, New York City, and Spain. Our first-years can’t wait! We’ll come back with stories, adventures, and a new mindset on our globalized world. Wish us luck!