Hobart and William Smith Colleges

Accessing Abroad

Support from Siberia to Seville
Each year, HWS students receive thousands of dollars in support through prestigious international organizations, federal agencies, alum support and endowed resources within the HWS community.

"This ease of accessibility shouldn't be taken for granted as it is not always the case at many other schools," says Anthony Mandela, CGE program manager. "Approximately 60% of our students study abroad in large part because of the commitment the institution has made toward ensuring our programs are accessible and affordable."

Students participating in an HWS semester study abroad program receive the same financial aid as they do while studying on campus, while other sources of aid are available for short-term programs. Regardless of the program or duration, CGE works to identify sources of support, D'Agostino says, because "students' finances shouldn't be an obstacle to go abroad."

From institutional grants to individual scholarships, HWS connects students with funding for short-term and full semester abroad programs, summer internships and post-graduate opportunities, empowering them "to continue their HWS educational journey in another country and to gain a deeper understanding of different learning and teaching styles - to see from another perspective and adapt to sometimes challenging circumstances," Mandela says.

Julius G. Blocker '53 Endowed Fund

For Matthew Fox '19 (right) and Huruizhen "John" Qin '19, a semester in Freiburg, Germany, supported by the Blocker Fellowship offered an unparalleled window into the political and economic centers of Europe.

Through the Blocker Fellowship, HWS students are empowered not only to study abroad in Germany but to share and reflect on their experiences on the blogs they keep while abroad and at the biannual Blocker Cultural Showcase after their return to campus.

"We visited the European Union Parliament and met with EU officials and went to embassies and talked with political attachés about current events. All of it was integrated into classes," says Fox, a political science major. "I took a course on Brexit and we went to Brussels and met with EU officials, and then met with another group of students in England and had a three-day negotiating session on how the U.K. should leave the EU. We heard from Sir Martin Donnelly, former Permanent Secretary for the Department for International Trade under British Prime Minister Theresa May, and got to show him our negotiations."

Qin (right), an economics major, says that the firsthand opportunities to learn "about the Greek economic crisis in Greece and corruption in Hungary and Romania" helped ground the classroom lessons. "The trip to Hungary, Romania and the Czech Republic enabled us to see and hear about the economic changes that happened to those countries after the Soviet Union collapsed," he says. "When you have someone from the government talking about what's going on in their country, and you are able to ask questions and interact with them, it's definitely different from hearing about it in class."

"Going to Germany changed Julius Blocker's life and he wanted to share that," says Fox. "You can only showcase a fraction of what you experience abroad, but if it gets other people interested in exploring on their own, that's the best thing the Showcase could do."

Padnos Family Endowed Internship and Travel Award

"I believe that in order to understand a moment or concept, it is best to place yourself as closely as possible to the historical site," says Aidan Ely '18 (right), who, with support from a 2018 Padnos Family Endowed Internship and Travel Award, spent that winter break in Prague, researching human rights violations and environmental injustice committed by the USSR during the Cold War. The award was established by a gift from Mr. and Mrs. Jeffrey S. Padnos P'11.

Now working for AmeriCorps VISTA, stationed in Rochester, N.Y., at Legal Assistance of Western New York, Ely says, "During the Cold War, the people of Prague did not make violence their means of protecting themselves from injustices, which is important to witness and dissect as I continue to study the humanitarian drives and protest movements in politics. The limited and thought-out are as important as the rash and explosive."

Shweta Patel '18 (right), also a 2018 Padnos Scholar, traveled to Bangalore, India, that summer to conduct field research on prenatal and neonatal health. Patel says she was always drawn to healthcare and medicine but her experiences abroad helped her realize she could better serve patients from a policy and operations standpoint rather than as a physician.

Posted with the Public Health Foundation of India, she joined researchers on the front lines of the country's efforts to improve healthcare, surveying parents and children in the city, maintaining data quality, and coordinating with other agencies to develop a model for educating the public on risks to pregnant mothers and young children.

"I wasn't exactly sure what I wanted do after graduation, but taking advantage of study abroad and funding opportunities helped guide me in ways I didn't expect," says Patel.

Now at Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, she works as a quality control analyst in the company's virology department, testing drugs to ensure safe and effective use for patients. While the company has operations spanning the Atlantic, Patel says the local community outreach and service opportunities at Regeneron reflect "the values of leadership, teamwork and volunteering" she developed at HWS.

U.S. Department of State Benjamin Gilman Scholarships

In 2017, Nagina Ahmadi '20 (right) was awarded the U.S. Department of State's Benjamin Gilman Scholarship to support her study abroad excursions during the Colleges' program in Seville, Spain. Drawing inspiration from the contrasts and similarities between Seville and Afghanistan, where she was born, Ahmadi wrote a short story, "Dos Pueblos, Una Amistad" (Two Towns, One Friendship), which took second prize in a competition sponsored by the Consulate of Spain in New York City the following year.

In Seville, her host mother had prepared puchero, a traditional soup of southern Spain that reminded Ahmadi of "a special soup my grandmother used to make for us called shorwa."

She says the award-winning story based on her semester abroad prompted a reconnection with her heritage. "Growing up in Buffalo, learning English and then Spanish were great experiences," she says. "But in the process I was losing my mother's tongue, Farsi. There was a time when I was unable to speak or write in Farsi. The opportunity of going to Spain and the process of writing about my experiences there have inspired me to celebrate the big part of my life that is my Afghan culture."

Eric Cohler Internship and Travel Awards

Each year through the Cohler Awards - made possible by gifts from acclaimed interior designer Eric Cohler '81 - HWS students interested in art and design are provided funding for study abroad opportunities coupled with an internship at Eric Cohler Design, Inc. in New York City.

Ethan Leon '19 (right, bottom) and Ying Ying "Sarita" Sun '19 (right, top), architectural studies majors and 2018 Cohler Award Recipients, each devoted their internships and abroad experiences to exploring how spaces and humanity converge. In Tel Aviv, Israel, Leon studied the design of queer spaces, while in Japan, Sun visited the country's leading design studios to learn about Japanese aesthetics and design, specifically those that "consider the needs of people and humanity," she said.

For Leon, the internship and research was an important step "to start making my dream of designing spaces to help people emotionally and mentally ... into a reality."