All Things ASE

Aye, Aye, iF&M.

With the imminent arrival of the autumn semester and our second cohort of iF&M students, last year’s faculty - Professors Kevin Brady and Jennifer Redmann, reflect on a successful debut for ASE’s program for first-year students from Franklin and Marshall College

The first iF&M cohort, along with F&M professor Jennifer Redmann.

There were audible gasps from the students as we emerged from Charing Cross tube station onto Trafalgar Square on a sunny September afternoon. The students spun around, gazing in awe at Nelson’s Column, the National Gallery, and London crowding all around. The inaugural group of iF&M students had arrived – or so it seemed to us, their professors. 

iF&M at Univ, as the ASE community came together for the Queen’s funeral.

International F&M – or iF&M – is a new program that allows a group of enrolled students from Franklin & Marshall College to join ASE in Bath during their very first semester of college. It was the brainchild of ASE Director Jonathan Hope, Sue Mennicke (Franklin & Marshall Associate Dean for International Programs), and Jimmie Foster (F&M Vice President for Enrollment Management). During the pandemic, some international Franklin & Marshall first-year students could not enter the US to study on campus, but they were able to travel to Bath. In order to accommodate them, the ASE staff designed a curriculum appropriate for first-year students. Building on the success of that effort, Jonathan, Sue and Jimmie created iF&M as a means of attracting a stellar group of first-year students to F&M through a unique and exciting program. This first iF&M cohort was diverse, including American students from Pennsylvania and New Hampshire and international students from Brazil, India, and Rwanda. Only one of the students had ever been outside of their home country before arriving in the UK. Recruitment efforts for the second cohort in the Fall of 2023 are underway. 

In Bath, the iF&M students enrolled in a full complement of courses designed just for them, while also taking advantage of the rich social and cultural program offered by ASE. This fall, the two of us – Kevin Brady and Jennifer Redmann – joined the program from Franklin & Marshall as its first faculty mentors. Not only did we see our seven iF&M students regularly in the classrooms of Nelson House, we lived in neighboring flats at Nunes House and accompanied them on all of their many academic and cultural excursions.

The centerpiece of the iF&M curriculum is a ‘Connections course’, a multidisciplinary writing-intensive course that all Franklin & Marshall students take during their first semester of college. The topics of the on-campus Connections courses vary widely; Jennifer’s course for iF&M, Exploring World War I through Literature, Art and Film, was ideally suited to a residential program in the UK. Over the course of the semester, students searched out First World War memorials, wore poppies to the Remembrance Sunday service at Bath Abbey, and came face-to-face with key World War I artifacts during a visit to London’s Imperial War Museum. Jennifer’s second course, on European Fairy Tales, featured a study trip to sites associated with King Arthur in Glastonbury. Kevin’s course, Introduction to Drawing, culminated in an exhibit in 44AD, a local art space next to Bath Abbey. Students also enrolled in courses taught by ASE tutors: an introductory economics course, a cross-cultural psychology course, and a course on UK-US comparative politics that included an in-depth tour of the Houses of Parliament.

Living and working together, the iF&M students developed close bonds with one another and with us, their professors and ‘house parents’. We were struck by how uninhibited and open the students became in the classroom. Since they knew us and each other so well, they clearly felt comfortable asking questions, offering opinions, and responding openly to assigned materials. Because we, their professors, lived in the same house with them, we were able to meet frequently one-on-one in the Nunes House common room for quick consultations and feedback, even during the evenings and on weekends. As a result, the students are well prepared to access resources and seek faculty guidance when they begin their studies on the Franklin & Marshall campus in Lancaster this Spring.

Outside the classroom, the iF&M group became increasingly independent and adventurous over the course of the semester. They cooked, baked, and made a project of discovering local restaurants together. They hiked Bath Skyline and the Kennett and Avon Canal. One student played American football at the University of Bath and another got involved in a local church. Two students regularly attended a weekly ‘Knit Night’ at a Bath yarn shop. Through their time in Bath, they learned the importance of time management and finding a work-life balance. When they return to the Franklin & Marshall campus this spring, they will be living in the same dormitory, and Jennifer will serve as their academic advisor through their sophomore year. We are confident that their connections with each other and with us will last for the next four years and beyond.

iF&M students and Professor Kevin Brady taking shelter during the Wales hike.

Some of our favorite moments with this year’s iF&M group involved climbing hills. In the second week of the semester, the students surveyed the city of Bath from high atop Solsbury Hill, site of an Iron Age hill fort some five miles outside of Bath. In October, they joined the other ASE students on a long, rainy walk to the top of the Kymin, a hill in Wales overlooking the Wye Valley. While fog and rain obscured the view, the sun soon came out, bringing the afternoon to a bright close among sheep and glorious rolling farmland. On a study trip to Glastonbury, students trudged again through fog and mist to the top of Cadbury Castle, reputed to be the site of King Arthur’s Camelot, and later that day, a climb to the summit of Glastonbury Tor featured cleared skies, sunshine and spectacular views. The iF&M students climbed repeatedly, enthusiastically, in every weather.

The stamina such climbing requires is an apt metaphor for the college years, and the 2022 iF&M students seem ready and eager – at least to us – to take on the challenges to come.