Around the World in 98 Days: How Carleton Supports Extracarricular Learning

This week, almost a month after our team of lovely admissions fellows began working away in Scoville, I casually strolled through the door for my first day as an admissions employee. It was an unorthodox start date but the nice thing about summer employment at Carleton is that it offers flexibility to pursue other exciting opportunities, whether you are doing faculty-lead research, helping manage the campus farm or the Cowling Arboretum, or completing an internship through Carelton’s Center for Community and Civic Engagement, you can build your 3-month summer break in a way that suits your interests and needs.

Beyond flexible scheduling and a long list of employment positions, Carleton supports summer opportunities and explorations through a strong network of Carleton exclusive fellowships which offer funding for student research, creative projects, and experiential learning. This spring I received the Professor Roy F. Grow Fellowship, which supported me on the adventure of a lifetime.

My Fellowship Goal

As a physics major and German minor, much of my course load focuses on a narrow slice of a very large world. Although Carleton’s Liberal Arts Requirements helped me to expand my worldview, I wanted the opportunity to gain exposure to other parts of the world before my Junior and Senior years filled up with major and minor requirements. To do so, I planned a month-long trip following my spring Off-Campus-Studies in Vienna through Central Asia and applied to the fellowship office for funding. After a short wait, I received an exciting email; I would be given enough funds to cover all my transportation and housing costs, plus a stipend for food!

So what did I do?

Even before I began my planned fellowship travels, the opportunities for experiential and immersive learning began. With the help of cultural funds to be used for personal learning initiatives during my OCS program, and support and encouragement from the program director Dr. Kiley Kost I was able to more easily travel to and explore other countries beyond Austria, helping me build my confidence as a solo traveler and gain a broader glimpse of Central and Eastern Europe. You can read more about the program from Katelyn!

Exploring a Recent Past in Kazakhstan

After departing from Vienna, my adventure began in Kazakhstan. I spent several days in Almaty, where Carleton’s very own Russophone Studies OCS Program will be based in the spring of 2025. While wrestling with the Cyrillic Alphabet and the heat of the city, I had a chance to explore the recent history of Kazakhstan and witness the growth of a post-Soviet national identity.

I then spent a few days traveling in the northern part of the country, visiting Semey and Kurchatov, the former headquarters of the Soviet Atomic Progam. The highlight of this leg of the trip was visiting the infamous Polygon, a region of the arid Kazakh steppe more than 5 times the size of Rhode Island and often referred to as the most bombed place in the world. Witnessing the direct impact of nuclear weapons on the landscape and environment as I walked through the former test site with a Geiger counter tied together my interests in physics, humanities, politics, and environmental science and provided me with a first-hand perspective on an issue that we will continue to be grappling with in the future. Had it not been for Carleton’s support, I would have never had this opportunity.

Continuing to Kyrgyzstan and Mongolia

After spending a few more days in Almaty, I traveled to Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, where I met with faculty and administrators from the American University of Central Asia (AUCA), a fellow liberal arts institution. Before I even embarked on my trip, I was advised to read Carleton professor Dr. Adeeb Khalid‘s book Central Asia: A New History from the Imperial Conquests to the Present. Dr. Khalid is considered by several of the faculty at the AUCA to be one of the world’s leading experts in Central Asian history. Even though I have never had a class with him, he was still very willing to meet with me to discuss his book and Central Asia before I departed from the US. 

After a few days of backpacking in the Kyrgyz mountains, I flew to Mongolia, where I spent a week in the Gobi Desert living with nomadic families, riding (and eating) camel and drinking airag (fermented mare’s milk).

My Takeaways

By the time I returned home, my combined OCS and Fellowship journeys had lasted 98 days, guided me to 12 different countries, and brought me in one big lap around the world. The lessons and experiences from such a journey will stay with me for the rest of my life.

The fact that I, a physics major, was completely supported by Carleton in this learning journey is something that I still struggle to wrap my head around. Carleton’s incredible faculty, alumni, and donors that make opportunities like this possible is something truly unique, and I am proud to be a member of such a supportive community.

Harrison (he/him/his) stays busy at Carleton! He is a captain of the club water polo team, plays both IM basketball and broomball, and participates in activities hosted by the German and physics departments. He loves the atmosphere of Carleton in that its students are focused on academics but they don’t let it get in the way of fun.