Journals

Domestic Abroad? (YES)

October 20, 2012   

In addition to the Semester in Washington program, Hamilton has another domestic abroad program in New York City. Both programs are structurally similar: a Hamilton professor travels down with the class to either city, teaches a seminar and an additional class, and the students find a part-time internship to gain work experience.

The Washington program primarily attracts government and world politics majors, and this semester, one of my roommates is an economics major. A few of the other students are history majors. The New York City program has an economics professor for one of the two semesters and the other semester changes every year - the past two years the focus has been on art history and sociology.

Professor David Paris ’70 is directing the D.C. program which is focused on higher education in the United States this semester. The class constantly reminds me how lucky I am to be at Hamilton. We talk about a variety of issues that pertain to higher education: shrinking school endowments, academic programs being cut, adjunct faculty, and the list goes on.

However each time we discuss the critical issues in higher education, one of my classmates always brings up the fact that Hamilton is an exception because of our alumni who are constantly donating money, the commitment of our professors to their students and  administration actions made in the best interest of our college.

I had a midterm for the higher education seminar on Wednesday, so between Sunday night and Wednesday morning, I studied every moment I could about federal vs. state involvement in higher ed, the inherent dichotomies of the education system and the historical trends of lateral learning, among other topics.

I think I did well on the exam. But we’ll see!

(Cheers to you Professor Paris '70, for all you have ahared with us - the Hamilton stories, life experiences and knowledge.