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Sharing her passion for global study

OMA&D adviser and Rome Program alumna Annabel Cholico relives her study abroad experience through the eyes of her students.

Annabel Cholico, OMAD alumna, stands near Drumheller Fountain.
Her passion for global discovery ignited by the OMA&D Rome Program, alumna Annabel Cholico now inspires UW students to study abroad. Photo: Indra Ekmanis

 

The first time Annabel Cholico, ’08, stepped off of a plane, she felt like she was in an Italian movie. It was 2007, and Annabel, a junior Law, Societies & Justice major, was on her way to the UW Rome Center for a 10-day trip that would change her outlook on learning and life.

“I remember as we were driving down the cobblestone roads [from the airport] I would turn back just to see the road behind me. Everything about it fascinated me,” she says. “Rome I had only seen and heard of in the movies, in books, it wasn’t something that I thought that I would be able to experience. It just felt like I was a character in books that I had read.”

A first-generation Latina student from Yakima, WA, Annabel is an alumna of the Rome Academic Enrichment Program sponsored by the Office of Minority Affairs & Diversity (OMA&D). Celebrating its 20th anniversary this year, the program began as a partnership between the Department of Classics, UW Rome Center and OMA&D. James Clauss, professor of classics, initiated the program in 1995.

“Because the UW had the Rome Center, I saw an opportunity to introduce OMA&D students directly to Rome itself,” Clauss says. “There arose a greater sense of curiosity and a realization that there was so much more to learn about the world around us.”

Having a UW home base in Rome’s  Campo di Fiori was very meaningful to Annabel’s experience. “The Rome Center and the place where students live has a bigger impact on them because they’re placed in this plaza where they can see life happening before them.”

Over the past two decades, more than 200 UW students have participated in the OMA&D Rome program. Ten days spent in Rome over spring break gives the students an opportunity to live through Roman history, visiting historical sites and engaging in stimulating discussion with experts and fellow students. “Every day was very structured, but enjoyable,” Annabel says. “When you’re abroad, it’s not a burden to wake up and go learn.”

For Annabel,the time spent together with her OMA&D Rome cohort was “a very diverse and rich experience for all of us. We all looked and sounded different,” she says. “It was great to learn about each others’ cultures while you’re in a place that isn’t really attached to any of us.” The relationships she formed are lasting; Annabel is still in close contact with several members of her cohort, some now as far flung as Dubai. “Its great to see us now, years later, and see what that experience abroad did for us,” she says.

The OMA&D Rome program engages students who otherwise might not have a leading-edge experience abroad without financial burden. Before her junior year, Annabel had not even dreamed of studying beyond the bounds of campus. “I had never thought about study abroad because I couldn’t afford it,” she says. “I was on scholarships and grants and I wasn’t willing to take a loan to go abroad because I really didn’t know what it meant and what the experience would be like, or if it was worth it.”

But once in Rome, Annabel’s drive to discover was ignited. Within six months of returning to Seattle, she was on her way to explore not only another country, but another continent. “I went to Rome in March, and by August, I was applying to an exploration seminar [in South Africa],” she says. “[The Rome Program] definitely opened the door of curiosity, wanting to learn more outside the box. That’s what it does for our students.”

Annabel was nominated to participate in the program in 2007 by her OMA&D adviser, Raul Anaya. Today, she sits two doors down from him, counseling her own students. Annabel earned her master’s in education policy from UW. When an academic counseling position at OMA&D opened she was thrilled. “I am in the perfect place because I’m a product of this office, I’m a product of all the programs I experienced, like Experience Rome,” she says.

Now Annabel counsels students who are embarking on their own trips to Rome, including a student who just returned. “We talked about what her learning experience would be like, what would spark within her. I told her, ‘You’re going to come back and you’re probably going to feel like you were in a movie,’  Annabel says. “She came back and she said, ‘Annabel, it was everything you said it was going to be! It was just amazing!’ I love it when I see the student experience it for the first time.”

The OMA&D Rome program helps students discover what drives them. “Had I not taken that experience as a student, I don’t know how long it would have taken me,” Annabel  says. “Its something great to see my students experiencing that now. I can’t imagine not having that program.”

Annabel’s Husky Experience  has come full circle. “I am a mirror of the students that I work with now, under-represented, first-generation, low-income,” she says. “When I see students from the same background, they may be timid or a little afraid of taking the study abroad route. But when they do they come back [they have] that same look in their face I remember I must have had, where its like, ‘This is the real world!’ The University and this program supported me in experiencing that.”

— Indra Ekmanis, Office of Global Affairs

 

Global health and the arts converge

“The Panacea Project – Global Health & the Arts performance showcase will debut Friday, April 24 at ACT Theater in Seattle. Community members from global health fields and the arts will converge for a night of interdisciplinary connections and re-imagination of health and healing. UW faculty, staff and students will perform. The performance is organized by the Global Health Undergraduate Leadership Committee.

Performers and speakers include:

  • Rachel Chapman, Sociocultural Anthropologist and University of Washington faculty
  • Jourdan Keith, Seattle’s Poet Populist Emeritus and Founder of the Urban Wilderness Project
  • Felicia Gonzalez, Poet and University of Washington staff
  • Jacque Larrainzar, Human Rights Artivist and musician
  • University of Washington graduate students

Learn more and reserve tickets…

Vanke Holdings chairman visits UW

Wang Shi, Chairman of the Chinese real estate firm Vanke Holdings, will speak on the University of Washington campus. Mr Wang’s lecture, The New Normal: Chinese Urbanization and Sustainable Building Practices, will take place on April 22 at 6pm in the Microsoft Atrium at the Paul G. Allen Center for Computer Science and Engineering. The event is open to the public.

UW students and leaders connect with Ambassador Kennedy in Japan

Dr. Peter Moran, Director of UW International Programs & Exchanges, visited Tokyo to serve on an expert panel and connect with University of Washington and Waseda University students at an event celebrating the exchange of students between the United States and Japan. At the panel discussion, Dr. Moran discussed the UW’s long history of student mobility to and from Japan and the UW’s special relationship with Waseda University. The UW is a worldwide leader in student exchange with Japan.

Dr. Moran, Delaney Lake, Ambassador Kennedy and Yuki Shimiya
Dr. Moran, Delaney Lake, Ambassador Kennedy and Yuki Shimiya
Dr. Moran connects with UW and Waseda students in Tokyo
Connecting with students in Tokyo

Ambassador Kennedy hosted a reception at her official residence after the event. UW student Delaney Lake, currently studying at Waseda University, and Waseda student Yuki Shimiya, who spent last year at the UW, joined Dr. Moran at the reception. Both students are part of the Waseda Global Leadership Program.

The Waseda Global Leadership Program is one example of the transformational student exchange experiences the UW offers. UW students in the program engage with a small cohort of Waseda exchange students spending the academic year at the UW. The following year, they study abroad at Waseda University.

The program engages students through academic reflection, experiential learning, and community service. Central to the impact and success of the program at the UW are strong campus partnerships. International Programs & Exchanges, UW Honors, and the Carlson Leadership & Public Service Center support the students in creating a learning community focused on leadership and service.

Hired at Microsoft, senior reflects on study abroad in Spain

Months before receiving her diploma, UW Bothell student Eleanor Wort has already secured a position with one of the region’s top employers. In July, she will be utilizing her bachelor of arts in Applied Computing degree as one of Microsoft’s newest associate consultants.

During the interview process, Eleanor was flown to Dallas, Texas. Along with 42 other applicants, she was given two days to prepare a 20 minute presentation for a panel of Microsoft employees on something she was passionate about. She decided to present on her study abroad experience in San Sebastián, Spain.

“Everybody I met in Spain was really surprised that I was a girl doing any kind of engineering. They would tell me, ‘what, no, you can’t do that. You are a girl.’”

What they didn’t realize is that Eleanor represents the future of STEM disciplines. The number of women in STEM majors at UW Bothell has more than doubled from nine-percent to nearly 19 percent in 2014. Women make up 40 percent of STEM faculty, far outpacing the national average.

Read more from UW Bothell …

UW leads the nation in Peace Corps volunteers

Peace Corps UW

The University of Washington produced the most Peace Corps volunteers for 2015, reclaiming the top spot with 72 alumni currently in service. The UW, Western Washington University and Gonzaga University combined to lead all three categories – large, medium and small schools – marking the second time in three years that institutions in the state of Washington produced the most Peace Corps volunteers in each category. Washington is the only state to top all three of Peace Corps’ undergraduate school ranking categories.

“We try to instill in students a sense of their place in the world and how one person can make a difference,” said Ana Mari Cauce, UW provost and executive vice president. “We are very proud of those students who actually make the commitment to test this by volunteering for the Peace Corps. It is very gratifying to think of our students in places all around the globe helping to make someone’s life a little better.”

Since the first days of the Peace Corps, 2,888 alumni from UW have traveled abroad to serve as volunteers, placing it third on the list of all-time volunteer producing schools. This is the second time UW has held the No.1 spot in the last three years.

Read more from UW Today …