On the Road with Two Sullivan Award Winners

What follows are reports by Annemarie Farrell ’01 and Jessica Liese ’01, last year’s recipients of the Karen Snyder Sullivan Memorial Travel Award, which awards up to $5,000 for travel to a Mount Holyoke student who has not traveled outside of the United States and Canada after the age of twelve. The Sullivan award is a memorial to Karen Snyder Sullivan ’68, whose first trip abroad after her junior year led to a lifelong love of travel. Recipients can choose to go anywhere and aren’t tied to an academic program, although Sullivan students do write a paper on their trip and deliver a presentation at the annual award dinner.

Sixty-Seven Days in Europe
By Jessica Liese ’01

Sixty-seven days in Europe—ten weeks, seven countries. It’s hard to put all of my experiences into one article. Although I’d spent the summer before the trip planning each day, down to where I would eat and what I would visit, there’s nothing that can prepare someone for the initial feeling of stepping off a plane in a foreign country and getting one’s bearings. Solo travel plunges one into situation after situation requiring quick thinking, navigation, sociability, and initiative-taking skills that are rarely demanded so often in everyday life.

Moreover, no amount of research and planning can prepare one for actually standing, for example, on the exact spot where the Beatles played for the first time or the room where Mozart was born. Adding the element of tangibility to the still images, sound bites, the texts on my bookshelves, my classes, and even what I hear on my stereo gave everything I had studied about Europe a new dimension and meaning.

I knew, intellectually, that this would happen, yet I still found myself surprised. In Edinburgh, I had expected a smallish city with a beautiful castle and a definite Scottish flavor. I found, instead, a place where I could explore my Scottish roots and embrace a culture in a way I hadn’t previously had the interest to try. In Berlin, instead of a merely interesting example of two worlds colliding, I found a city whose struggles to reconcile its rich and painful history with its dizzyingly fast development were unique and fascinating.

Whether I was cycling in the hills of Tuscany or singing along with the oompah band at the Hofbrauhaus in Munich, I was constantly discovering new things, meeting locals and fellow travelers, and marveling that I was actually there. The ways in which such a trip can change a person are innumerable. Nearly every day, I discover a new facet to the different way I see myself and the world around me.

Reflections Down Under
By Annemarie Farrell '01

I boarded a United Airlines 747 on August 25, and with one last glimpse of Auckland, I ended my South Pacific adventure, returning home to my regularly scheduled life. Though I often pause when I pass a world map and consider the vast ocean that separates me from this place I fell in love with, I know I will return soon.
What was it that made my New Zealand and Australian trip so profound? Was it my time in the Daintree rainforest or on the beaches of Byron Bay? Did I find something so unique in the hills of Taupo or the metropolitan frenzy of Auckland? I truly cannot imagine places more beautiful than these two countries I explored.

I spent seven-and-a-half weeks roaming the eastern coast of Australia, from the Great Ocean Road to Cooktown, before arriving for a brief stay in New Zealand. Summarizing my trip in the limited space provided here is as impossible as traveling the entire Australian continent in seven weeks. Reflecting on my trip, I am certain that what I saw is less important than how I was changed by this experience. It was my personal version of Survivor. I was dropped in a foreign country, alone and uncertain that I wouldn’t freak out upon missing a train or bus. It was the first time in my life I was completely alone, or so I thought.

Traveling alone gives you the freedom to dictate your trip, while giving you unlimited opportunities to meet similar solo travelers. I met wonderful travelers, hailing everywhere from Ireland to Korea, all with their own stories and travel experiences. We shared buses, dinners, bunk beds, laughter, and the landscape we explored. It seems like such a cliché that you need to travel halfway across the world to gain a different perspective on your own home. When I looked up at the sky in Australia, I saw a part of the universe I had never seen before, stars and constellations I had never witnessed. In seven short weeks I learned about the strength of my beliefs, the companionship of strangers, and the reality of my own independence.

This month the world will turn its attention to the city of Sydney. As I watch athletic events on television, thoughts of my trip will loom close to my heart. For the personal discoveries I made during my travels, I will always be thankful for the opportunity this award made possible. It is a truly unique award, celebrating the life of a special Mount Holyoke woman, Karen Snyder Sullivan.

The deadline for application for this yearŐs Karen Snyder Sullivan Memorial Travel Award is September 27 at 4 pm. Details are available from the Office of the Associate Dean of the College, 300 Mary Lyon Hall, x2550. Applicants must be sophomores, juniors, or Frances Perkins Scholars in good standing at MHC, and must also be U.S. citizens who have not traveled outside of the United States and Canada after the age of twelve.