Summer Abroad in London

Hello! My name is Amandla Williams and I am a junior and studio art major at Agnes Scott College. I recently applied for and was accepted into the London International Summer School Program at the University of Westminster, which is a program designed specifically for international students. Though I have already been awarded a partial scholarship, it is not enough to cover the full cost of the program. The total cost is $5,400, which includes tuition and room and board; it does not, however, include travel expenses, which on their own amounts to approximately $1,000. I would greatly appreciate it if anybody could donate whatever they can because any amount will make a difference. By donating, you will not only help me to achieve my goal of travelling outside of the U.S., but to do so while pursuing my passion for art as well. The program offers many different courses in a wide variey of subjects including business, liberal arts, visual arts, law, and tourism. The course that I will be taking will be either a visual or liberal arts course. My two options are titled Photographing the City: London (visual) and Art and Society (liberal). Photographing the City: London is a course based on learning and perfecting the basic skills and techniques of contemporary photography with a focus on representing the city of London, its culture, and its people through photographic imagery. Art and Society focuses on the study of art history and its categorization into various art contexts. Throughout this course, students will mainly be visiting London's art museums and art institutions as well as many other aspects of the city itself. Both of these courses, much like the other courses offered in the program, involve a cultural aspect of learning as they utilize the city of London and its many resources and institutions as tools to fully immerse students in the city's culture and environment. Here is a link to an overview on the University of Westminster's summer program: London International Summer School Here are links to the various course listings as well as an overview of my two course options:  Summer School Courses  Photographing the City: London Art and Society  My main goal for choosing this program is to further my studies into the subject of art itself. Having previously taken a lower-level course in art history, I believe that taking this course will further expand on what I have learned by giving me a more hands-on, observational approach on the subject. This, in turn, will give me a better, more in-depth understanding of art history than I have had previously, due to hands-on and observational research being my preferred method of study. Also, as a studio art major, I have previously taken and learned the techniques of many forms of visual art, including drawing, painting, printmaking, and bookmaking. After recently developing and interest in photography, however, I would like to further my studies in visual art by learning and perfecting the techniques for an art form that I do not curently have much experience in. My second goal for choosing this program is to utilize the global aspect that the program itself has to offer. Since starting the Summit program, (which is a global learning based program) for the duration of my first year at Agnes Scott College, I discovered that the global aspect of learning was something that had been missing from my schooling throughout most of my life. My first-year Journeys course, which allows first-year students to travel as a group on a global study excursion, is what most successfully prepared me for this experience by granting me with my first partially independent travel experience. Though the students were being guided by instructors, I felt as though we were given a sense of independence by being allowed to make a great amount of exploration and learning decisions on our own. Also, though it was located in my home country, the location in which we traveled to (New York City) gave me a sense of unfamiliarity, as its environment was a great contrast to that of my home state, Georgia. While the Summit program, as well as my first-year Journeys course, has helped me to gain a clearer understanding of global learning, it would greatly benefit me by taking my methods of global learning one step further by studying in a country other than the one in which I currently live. Also, because I have never traveled outside of the United States, I believe that the location I have chosen would be an ideal place to begin my travels abroad as there is not much of a language barrier, yet the culture and environment will still be unfamiliar and a great contrast to what I am used to experiencing on a daily basis.