Students expand horizons through off-campus study programs

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More than 85 students have been chosen to participate in this spring’s Colgate University off-campus study programs. The university offers 24 semester-long off-campus programs at sites around the world.

Colgate is identified by the Institute for International Education as a national leader in study-abroad programs, providing international opportunities for 500 students each year.

‘The off-campus study programs are closely tied to the academic program here at Colgate,’ says Ken Lewandowski, director of Colgate’s Office of International Programs and Off-Campus Study. ‘The programs are inspired by faculty with an interest in taking their teaching beyond the classroom.’

Each of the study groups includes 15 to 20 students who are often required to take prerequisite courses in preparation for their studies. Students studying in England, for example, will focus on 19th-and 20th-century drama, fiction, and nonfiction.

Off-Campus Study Programs, Spring 2004:

Dijon Study Group, led by Bernadette Lintz, associate professor of romance languages and literatures. Established in 1966 with the purpose of giving students the opportunity to develop proficiency in the French language and to acquire a thorough knowledge of French culture in the broadest sense of the term through extended residence and study in France. Students are housed with families, many of whom have been welcoming Colgate students for several years.

Dominican Republic Study Group, led by Lourdes Rojas, professor of romance languages and literatures.

This program, based in Santiago de los Caballeros, offers students the opportunity to study an Hispanic culture and society of the Caribbean region from an interdisciplinary perspective.

Through stays with a family in Santiago de los Caballeros, students will gain a special perspective on Dominican family live and daily practice in the language. Students will attend a weeklong colloquium at Santo Domingo, the first urban center in the New World.

Freiberg Study Group, led by Dierk Hoffman, professor of German.

This study group is designed to give students ‘ who have previously studied German in the classroom the opportunity to develop and polish their skills through ‘total immersion’ in a German-speaking environment. It also helps students integrate their German language skills into their broader intellectual life by providing them with an opportunity to pursue their chosen areas of concentration together with native German students in courses at the University of Freiberg.

The group will travel together with the director during the first weeks of the program and settle in Freiburg in late March or early April. Students are housed in dormitories of the University of Freiberg.

London English Study Group, led by Deborah Knuth, professor of English.

Students in the program will read and experience the literature of Britain and specifically of London in the 18th and 19th centuries with a self-conscious effort to regain the original context for that literature. In addition, they will read and experience19th- and 20th-century drama, fiction, and nonfiction through traditional modes of analysis and also through a feminist perspective.

Classes are held in a 250-year-old building in Bloomsbury, one street over from the British Museum. Students live cooperatively in apartments in central London.

London History Study Group, led by R.M Douglas, assistant professor of history.

This is an enriched curriculum designed to offer British and imperial history as taught by historians based in the United Kingdom. This experience will enable history students and other concentrators to write a paper based upon work in London’s extraordinary research repositories.

The director and instructors from leading British university history departments guide the students in a semester of firsthand writing of history, using the archives, libraries and museums visited by professional historians.

Finally, the study group allows students’both collectively and as individuals’to explore the cultural institutions of one of the world’s most fascinating cities. Students live in centrally located apartments.

Wales Study Group, led by Evelyn Hart, professor of mathematics.

This study group is intended for concentrators in the Division of Natural Sciences and Mathematics who wish to live and study in a foreign country. The program is in residence at Cardiff University, the largest of the six colleges that comprise the University of Wales.

Among other courses, students will study the mathematics of symmetry in the plane (as Escher did for his artwork). Each student will prepare an annotated bibliography and an oral presentation on an application of symmetry to the student’s concentration.

Washington Study Group, led by Stanley Brubaker, professor of political science.

Begun in 1935, the Washington Study Group is the oldest of Colgate’s study groups and was the first program of its kind established in Washington.

The group combines rigorous academic analysis with a total immersion in Washington political life. During the semester, students serve two internships one with the executive branch and one with Congress, take two seminars in American politics, conduct numerous interviews with political leaders, and develop a lot of political savvy.

Many program graduates have returned to Washington to take active roles in national government and politics.


Founded in 1819, Colgate University is a highly selective, residential, liberal arts college enrolling nearly 2,750 undergraduates. Situated on a rolling 515-acre campus in central New York State, Colgate University attracts motivated students with diverse backgrounds, interests and talents.