It's Inauguration Day!
Congratulations, Matt vandenBerg, OWU's 17th President!
View details for Inauguration Day and stream the event live.
Congratulations, Matt vandenBerg, OWU's 17th President!
View details for Inauguration Day and stream the event live.
December 14, 2017 | By Cole Hatcher
Name: Rachel Scherrer ’18
Major: Theatre
Minor: English
Hometown: Sebastopol, California
Experience: Semester-long study abroad at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand
Lessons learned: “It’s hard being away from home, or from a place you’ve made your home, but the connections with people that I made while abroad, I’m hoping to keep for the rest of my life. …
“I’m a theatre major who was taking film theory and media classes. It was somewhat intimidating in the beginning. Yet, when we had weekly hour-long tutorials that involved small discussion groups, I found that our regular class set-up at OWU was practically the same. These were the parts of class the other students dreaded but I looked forward to. …
“I learned that I chose the right major. A semester in another country while not having any outlets for my major completely solidified that I’m doing what I need to be doing.
“It’s hard to describe how traveling can change [the way] you view the world. Obviously when you travel, you see a different corner of the world, but there’s something different about having the practical, hands-on learning experience studying abroad gives you.
“You learn a bunch about yourself you wouldn’t have otherwise. From finding a new favorite coffee shop, to figuring out public transportation, all the way to tramping across a 19-kilometer alpine Great Walk, it gives you a new lens to view the world through. The whole point of a liberal arts education is to be ‘well-rounded,’ but there’s only so much book learning can get you.”
Why I chose Ohio Wesleyan: “I realized almost too late into applying for colleges that I did not want to do a B.F.A. for acting, and OWU was recommended to me by my college counselor. I applied about six weeks before the deadline and three weeks later, I got my very first college acceptance letter.
“I ended up visiting during the polar vortex, and I was in for a surprise. I had never been in temperatures below freezing before, but the campus was beautiful, the experience was magical, and the people made it home. I loved the study abroad programs, both travel-learning and the semester abroad, and I liked how easy it was to take classes in different disciplines.”
My plans after graduation: “Currently I’m planning on taking a year off while applying to grad programs for theatre, but more specifically acting. The specifics are definitely up in the air, but I’m not too worried about it right now.”