Mount Holyoke's Campus Extends
Around the Block and Around the Globe

BY DON ST. JOHN

Boundaries: Mount Holyoke students push them--academically, intellectually, creatively, and personally. To make the most of their talents and skills, many students journey beyond Mount Holyoke's gates. Why? To gain the fullest possible education--engaging with the world to make the most of what they have learned on campus and to gain new perspectives on their studies, their culture, and themselves.

There are a myriad of off-campus study opportunities. They are as close by as neighboring Amherst, where students can study Emily Dickinson's poetry while taking a class in her home through Mount Holyoke's community-based learning program, and as far afield as Senegal, where courses in the College's program include the study of Wolof, one of Senegal's national languages.

A full infrastructure exists to help students study off campus--from the Office of International Affairs, which serves students who study abroad, to the many programs run by academic departments, to opportunities provided by faculty members.

"It's part of Mount Holyoke's original institutional mission to be actively engaged in the world," says Christopher Rivers, dean of international affairs. "And the best way to do that is for students to go out and experience the world." As many as a third of juniors take the opportunity to study abroad, with even more opting for study at affiliate programs in this country. "There's nothing like it," says Sarah Ludwig '00, who spent a semester studying in Scotland at the University of Edinburgh. "Being completely on your own is like jumping into deep water. It's nice to know that I can float."

Where can you go?