Ranked as one of the top 10 "Best Value" international studies programs in the nation (College Factual), Ohio Wesleyan's distinctive International Studies major focuses on experience and connections. You have many opportunities to gain real-world experience through internships and research projects in Washington, D.C., and locations around the world. Just as important, you have daily international opportunities on campus – meeting international policy experts and scholars, Skyping with leaders at NATO and other international organizations, interacting with OWU alumni at the height of federal agencies, and living on a campus with fellow students from around the world.
The cross-disciplinary nature of OWU's International Studies major provides you with a holistic understanding of global issues and interactions. And the setting in a national liberal arts university means you can work closely with a faculty mentors to develop a major and deeply explore research projects that fit your interests and goals.
In the major, you can pursue general international studies or concentrate on a specific region - Europe, Africa, Asia, Latin America, or Middle East. The core curriculum covers global issues, international economics, and international politics, and you're encouraged to study at least one foreign language and spend at least one semester studying or interning abroad. You'll cap off your major with an integrative senior seminar to help tie everything together.
We emphasize intellectual curiosity, creativity, initiative, and synthesis. OWU provides many research opportunities for you to explore an existing problem or process—or perhaps to develop a totally new avenue of exploration. You can work with a faculty mentor and apply for grant funding.
You can present your research at the Student Symposium in the spring and at other conferences.
OWU offers a wide variety of ways for you to journey to a distant land and immerse yourself in another culture.
From your first year on campus, you can get off campus with Travel-Learning Courses, a key part of The OWU Connection. You can also spend a semester at an overseas university or apply for OWU grants for shorter research projects around the world.
Every OWU student has a variety opportunities to connect classroom learning with real-world experience. You can take on an internship, or work with a professor to create a unique project - and get OWU funding to help carry it out.
Many International Studies majors take advantage of OWU's Wesleyan in Washington internship program, where you work for a semester in a setting that aligns with your goals.
International Studies major Jessica Sanford '17 spent the summer before her senior year interning as a political coordinator at the National Republican Senatorial Committee in Washington, D.C.
Through the Wesleyan in Washington program, Emily Feldmesser '16 worked as an intern at The Brookings Institution, a nonprofit public policy organization and one of the world's foremost think tanks, based in Washington, D.C.
You can intern and learn where the political action is. Through the Wesleyan in Washington program, you will live and work in Washington, D.C. Recently, students have interned at The Brookings Institution, one of the world's foremost think tanks; the Center for American Progress, a nonpartisan educational institute; and the National Archives.
During your time at Ohio Wesleyan, you can apply to live in one of OWU's Small Living Units, such as Citizens of the World House, which serves as a meeting place for students with international interests. And you can join globally focused clubs and activities, like Model UN.
OWU brings international policy experts to campus through both the Eddy and Corinne Lyman Lecture Series.
OWU's Global Studies Institute brings together scholars from across the university to explore ideas and real-world issues that span national boundaries and professional disciplines. The institute also coordinates the Global Scholars Program, in which a number of high-achieving students take special classes, receive funds for global projects, complete a faculty-supervised thesis, and graduate with a global certificate.
Courtney Durham '12 leads the Pew Charitable Trusts' engagement in the United Nations negotiations on climate change. She also supports efforts to strengthen climate considerations in Pew's conservation projects.
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Emily Feldmesser '16 interning at the Brookings Institute through the Wesleyan in Washington Program.
(L-R) Corinne Lyman and Sarah Kennedy ’18
Politics and Government Professor Ji Young Choi (third from left), staff member/student Don Stevens, and students including Jackson Hotaling ’17, Lucie Olson ’18, Yanira Rhymer ’19, Jessica Sanford ’17, and Shaoyin Sun ’17 traveled to South Korea, where they studied waste management in a country of 50 million people – all squeezed into a land mass the size of Kentucky or Indiana.
Raissa Kanku ’20, an International Studies minor, was one of 23 college students from across the country to participate in the 2017 New York Times Athens Democracy Forum in Athens, Greece, themed “Solutions for a Changing World.” She was one of only four chosen to participate in a panel discussion at a New York Times forum on global democracy.
(L-R) Sarah Kennedy ’18, Jermaine Frazer-Phillips ’18, and Jenna Chambers ’18
At OWU, Carly Zalenski ’15 participated in mission trips to El Salvador and Nicaragua, spent a summer working in Vietnam with the East Meets West Foundation, and gained hands-on experience in nonprofit management and grant-writing at a social service agency in Delaware, Ohio. She received a 2014 Charles J. Ping Student Community Service Award from the Ohio Campus Compact.
(L-R) Nicolette Riestenberg ’18, Sarah Kennedy ’18, Jenna Chambers ’18, Matthew Pheneger ’18, Thomas Oggier ’19, and Ahmed Hamed ’20. Not pictured, Catherine Kocian ’18.
University of Texas-Austin professor Joshua Busby (right), at OWU to speak on international climate leadership, was escorted on campus by Jermaine Frazer-Phillips '18.
University of Pennsylvania Law School Professor Beth Simmons, a world-renowned authority on international relations and human rights, spoke at OWU in 2017. She discussed “The Future of Human Rights.”
International Studies and French double-major Mariama Goodwin ’17 used an OWU grant to travel to Paris to study terrorism from multiple angles.
