Global / International
Nora Frederickson '10
On her semester abroad: "What does dancing on the bar of a rural Austrian disco have to do with an Oberlin education?" (Answer inside!) [more]Anna Brown '11
On exploration: "For my whole life, I lived on the same 15-acre piece of rural property. At Oberlin, the opportunities to get out and see the world kept popping up... my biggest fear [now] is that I'll eventually run out of new places to visit." [more]Andy Bartholomew '07
On biking across Japan: "From March 15th to June 10th, I cycled from Kyushu to Nagano. Nearly every day I flash back to some moment of my trip to Japan. I'll hop on my bike, or see a train, and I'll remember my first day on the road or jumping on the Shinkansen." [more]Toussaint Mears-Clarke '09
On academics at Oberlin: "Understanding the subject matter of any class at Oberlin is an undertaking that requires a deliberate purpose of mind. Professors bring you to understand a subject without ever just giving you the answer." [more]Anne Hoffman '08
On habits developed at Oberlin: "I spent mornings at Black River, nursing coffee and developing an addiction from which I have no intention of recovering. I read political theory that made my brain feel like it was on fire. I read Chaucer in the original Middle English." [more]Stephanie Patterson '07
On falling in love in Russia: "I brought my dictionary everywhere, but sometimes I was amazed that two people could connect in a way, especially with humor, that didn't always involve complete cognitive understanding." [more]Mike Fry '09
On teaching jump rope in Tanzania: "It may seem unconventional. You're right - it is. That's part of what drew me to Oberlin. What I see on a daily basis are students who aren't afraid to try something completely new, entirely unconventional, and highly improbable." [more]Myrina D. McCullough '69
On America's first black president: "I'm glad and proud that I ... and countless other Obies who have also shared their stories here all rejected the paralyzing fear of "otherness" that keeps people apart and keeps our world fragmented." [more]Anne Richmond '83
On moving to India after graduation: "There is nothing like being immersed in another culture -- no longer being the majority -- to force one to recognize what profoundly cultural beings we really are." [more]Nicolee Kuester '10
On the Oberlin Orchestra China Tour: "... in spite of the stress and discomfort, my memories of the tour are overwhelmingly dominated by those moments of recognition that we experience only when we travel, the overriding reminders of how-we-are-the-same-in-spite-of." [more]Beth Rogers '07
On moving to China: "I struggled in basic conversation, couldn't communicate emotion, couldn't deal with the subtleties of the language at all, and couldn't read anything ... in some ways I think I re-discovered the potency and complexity of language during that time." [more]Jonathan Pincus '83
On the shock of arriving in Indonesia: "I managed to get to the Menteng Hotel, where I witnessed an oversized rat execute a bellyflop into the hotel pool. That night I wondered if I had made a huge mistake. I hadn't." [more]Sze Foong '99
On studying in London with David Walker: "Threading it all together were the conversations gently led by David about and around these plays, supplemented by talk of poems, novels, museum visits, and films, and from these emerged the constant interplay between fact and fiction." [more]Sarah Frank '09
On her semester in Ghana: "Sankofa means 'return to your roots.' Sankofa is an important concept, because in order to grow, you cannot always move forward. You must go backwards, and go home, in order to make the distance count." [more]
Our goal is to collect 1000 Oberlin stories, and so far we have 130. If you are an Oberlin student, alum, professor, or staff member, you can help by contributing your story.
