HAMPSHIRE COLLEGE
2015-2016
Maya Masterson
As I re-read the letter of intent I wrote over a year ago as we were applying for our third
year abroad, I am amazed at how many of my interests and goals I was able to pursue but in
ways beyond what I ever could have imagined. My goal was to pursue community organizing
in the context of civil liberties and social change in an less academic and theoretical setting.
After two years at Sciences Po, I was looking for a hands-on and radical experience in
community organizing and social change and for that reason I chose Hampshire College.
Hampshire College is a small, private liberal arts college in Amherst, Massachusetts.
Hampshire is part of a renowned consortium on the east coast known as the Five Colleges where
students can take classes at Amherst College, Smith College, Mount Holyoke College, the
University of Massachusetts and Hampshire College. Hampshire is unique even amongst the
liberal arts colleges for its alternative curriculum, grading policies and radical politics. At
Hampshire, classes are separated in what is known as “divisions”. Students have to complete a
“Division I” and “Division II” in order to move on to their final “Division III” which is
ultimately a senior thesis that they work on for a year with the aid of a committee of professors
and an academic advisor. All along, Hampshire students curate their own curriculum and receive
written evaluations instead of grades. Every student’s curriculum is self-designed and
incredibly unique and prepares them to conceive, produce and perfect their own final product.
Although Hampshire students are not required to take pre-requisites such as “Introduction to
English” or “Biology 101”, all students are required to complete forty hours of community in
their first year and all students need to take at least one class on the topic of race, class and
gender. With a proud history of activism and organizing, Hampshire students are tirelessly
continuing that work on campus. A lot of the organizing work that is done on campus surrounds
identity work around white privilege, gender and class. Talks, workshops and classes are
organized for students to acknowledge, understand and work through their own positions of
power and privilege in the world. Although this kind of experience can be difficult or
uncomfortable, I highly encourage everyone to engage in this because if, like me, you’re
interested in creating social change, this kind of work is incredibly necessary. The beauty of
Hampshire College and the Pioneer Valley is that your experience is what you make of it. I
have friends who spent the year studying permaculture and working at the farm and others
who have participated in various plays and movies. The beauty of this place is also that
everyone is encourage to share what they make, create or discover so even if you find dive into a
very specific niche, you will be able to experience so much beyond your own interests through
plays, shows, art expositions, panels, movies and many more. I can only speak for myself and to
my experience but I truly believe that no matter who you are and what you want to do, you can
find your place at Hampshire College.
#DisruptHigherEd
Orientation
My experience as an exchange student was unique in the fact that I was born in raised in Chicago
with a French mom and American dad. I went to the Lycée Francais de Chicago up until middle
school and then went to a public high school. Upon graduation, however, I decided to go attend
the Euro-American campus of Sciences Po in Reims. While applying to the third year abroad, I
decided to go back to the United States because I found it to be the perfect opportunity to
experience college in the United States and I knew I would benefit greatly from engaged
pedagogy and hands-on learning. For that reason, I did not have to do any visa processes and I
was exempt from the international students orientation.
This year, Hampshire only had three exchange students and all of us were from Sciences Po. We
participated in the orientation week where we were grouped together with the transfer students.
During this week, we visited the campus, attended several organized activities and participated in
a couple identity workshops where we were introduced to various concepts such as preferred
pronouns.
From the beginning, we were introduced to all the people and resources we would have available
to us throughout the entire year. We were given flyers and asked to enter a series of numbers into
our phones that we would maybe need in the future. Arriving on a new campus and not knowing
anyone can be overwhelming but from the start, Hampshire makes it clear that there are people
available, no matter what you are going through.
The first week, we were given the opportunity to try out various activities such as rock-climbing,
kayaking, circus, frisbee or hiking. This is a great opportunity to start meeting people!
making new friends during our first week at Hampshire..goats!
Academics
Hampshire College, like most private liberal arts colleges, is unique in that all classes are taught
by professors and the class sizes almost never exceed fifteen people. Having professors as
resources is something Hampshire takes very seriously so take advantage of this! The school has
a history of incredible professors, one example being James Baldwin, and continues to employ
highly qualified professionals. You never know the endless opportunities or advice a professor
has until you take the time to talk to them and this is something I am very grateful that I did.
Although there are no grades and professors are very flexible and accommodating with
deadlines, I did not feel this affected the seriousness of the classes. On the contrary, I felt a very
different kind of pressure to complete the work and come to class prepared. In my experience,
almost all students came to classes prepared which led to fascinating and fruitful class
discussions. Although I have heard this is not always the case, especially in introductory or first
year classes, in my experience, students are truly passionate about what they are studying. I was
very inspired by the experience of students being motivated to work and study in the absence of
grades and strict deadlines.
The Five Colleges have an add-drop period which allows you to sample various different courses
for up to three weeks before you have to decided whether to add or drop them. The first weeks of
class are never too demanding so I highly suggest trying out as many courses as possible and
dropping the ones you decide not to take.
Semester I
Social Movements in Latin America - Roosbelinda Cardénas
The summer before arriving at Hampshire College, I spent three months in Bolivia working
on a public health project. Because I had been studying mostly sociology and law at Sciences Po
and I was growing a deep interest for social change and community organizing, this seemed like
the perfect class. We explored grassroots politics, social movements and alternative
democratic practices through theoretical and ethnographic readings carefully chosen by the
professor. Every class, a group of students presented on a case study which we then analyzed and
discusses using social and political theory but also peoples’ personal experiences. Everyone in
the class had some kind of connection to Latin American, be it family or recent visits. The class
was incredibly interesting and inspiring and applicable to so many other areas of my studies. Our
discussions and analyses spanned from topics such as the micro-politics of a neighborhood in
Caracas, Venezuela to broader questions of power, inequality and justice. Throughout this class, I
was able to use my background knowledge of subjects such as economics or political theory and
apply it to questions and places I am passionate about. Roosbelinda was so passionate about what
she was teaching and always managed to foster interesting discussions. Having recently
completed her PhD doing participatory research field work in Colombia, she was especially
excellent at getting us to think about research methods, positionality and ways of approaching
research.
Case Studies in Global Health: Biosocial Perspectives - Felicity Aulino
This class was another experience of applying knowledge I gained at Sciences Po -a
significant amount of sociology courses- to a topic I was only familiar with through my summer
experience in Bolivia: global health. This course is taught by a UMass anthropology professor
who teaches every other semester at a one of the other five colleges. Felicity is the most
charming and alternative yet incredibly intelligent and rigorous professor I have ever had. We
applied sociological concepts such as the social construction of meaning to global health
case studies. We were brought to develop a strong methodology in analyzing case studies which
is an incredibly important skill to have. I went to see Felicity many times during her office hours
and through our conversations she was able to recommend me for an excellent grassroots
community organizing class at UMass that I ended up getting into the next semester. The reading
in this class was heavy and most students were at least in their second year so everyone came to
class very prepared - many students did the recommended readings in addition to the heaving
required readings - and the discussions were very strong in critical analysis and important
questioning. Even if I am not headed into global health or a health related field, the critical
analysis skills I gained through this class are more than I ever could have imagined.
Elementary Spanish II - Samira Artur
My experience taking language classes has always been in classes structured around a lot of
memorizing and testing. My initial thought was that learning a language in an academic setting
such as Hampshire’s would not be very successful but I was proven otherwise. Coming into the
class, I had a high level of conversation and understanding after three months of immersion but
my grammar and vocabulary was not up to standards. As most language courses in the United
States, the class focused more on conversation and speaking than reading and writing.
Personally, I prefer this so I very much enjoyed the course and found it beneficial. For someone
looking to improve their grammar and vocabulary, the language courses at Amherst College are
known to be more rigorous and demanding. Samira is a wonderful teacher and if you’re
interested in doing extra work, for example reading higher level books ect., she is very
accommodating and more than willing to help.
Night Hiking - Clemencia Corporale
Night Hiking is one of the many OPRA (Outdoor Programs, Recreation and Athletics) classes
available in the fall semester. In addition to organizing weekend hiking, camping, climbing or
kayaking trip and renting outdoor equipment to students, OPRA has weekly classes offered for
one credit. This class would meet every Wednesday evening from 6-10pm. Every week, we
hiked a different trail, usually walking four to six miles. We chose which trails to take as a
group of about twelve students and everyone took tours leading the hike. We all had headlamps
to guide us as the sun went down and by the end of the semester, we wore gloves, hats, coats and
our headlamps were on from the start to the finish. We learned some navigating and outdoor facts
throughout the course but it was also a great time to exercise and get some air in the middle of
the week. Clemencia has some great hiking stories and knows all the best spots to go camping in
the Pioneer Valley so she is a great person to talk to if you’re interested in that.
Semester II
The reservoir in the dead of winter
Writing the Urban Experience - Will Ryan
Will Ryan has been teaching writing at Hampshire for almost forty years but still teaches with so
much enthusiasm and punk that sitting in his class was one of the greatest comforts I found this
year. Writing the Urban Experience is an introductory level writing course which I intentionally
chose because I have never taken a creative writing class in college. As a Sciences Po student
only used to writing impersonal, analytical essays, this was challenging but wonderful
experience. We had various writing assignments throughout the semester and for every class,
Will chose a couple of peoples’ writings to be read aloud and commented on. Although this felt
intimidating and uncomfortable at first, everyone in the class was very supportive and reassuring
and provided genuine and helpful comments on each others’ writing. Part of the class was
focused on actual writing techniques such as effective sentence structures or supporting details
but we also spent a good part of the class redefining what is we consider as good writing material
or how to write about seemingly boring or unimportant experiences. For every writing
assignment we turned in, Will would set up individual meetings with each student to discuss and
revise the work. This is an incredible opportunity, especially in a college level class. I also found
that witnessing the time and dedication that Will put into teaching the class was a strong
motivating force for us, as students, to put in time and effort into the class.
Ethnographies of the Global South: Middle East and South America - Roosbelinda
Cardénas and Hiba Akar
Having enjoyed Roosbelinda’s class so much first semester, I decided to take her class again, this
time an ethnographies class co-taught with a Middle Eastern Politics and urban planning
concentration professor, Hiba Akar. This class attracted students coming from so many different
fields, spanning from international relations and middle eastern politics to gender studies and
sociology so the class discussion were always very engaging and thought-provoking. We were
assigned to read a variety of different ethnographies, all carefully hand-picked by the professors.
Throughout the semester, we also had researchers, who's work we had read, come to class to
present and discuss their work with us. Our final project consisted of developing a ethnographic
research project proposal and presenting it to the class on the final day. This project enabled us
to gain many tools in writing grant proposal or thinking about research methods. For anyone who
is interested in the middle east, latin america, qualitative research methods or ethnographies and
storytelling, this is a great class!
Grassroots Community Organizing (UMass) - Jenn Sandler and Student Facilitators
During my first semester, one of my professors who is a part of the Anthropology Department at
the University of Massachusetts, recommended I apply to a student-facilitated course at UMass
called grassroots community organizing. The class accepted sixty students and we were divided
into three different groups, each group led by two student facilitators. The facilitators had all
taken the class the year before and then trained to lead the class during the fall semester. Each
group was paired with a community partner, a community organization in the region, with
whom we would be spending spring break. The course was in line with the principles of critical
and engaged pedagogy which meant the the class was, in many ways, a group of students
deciding how to learn, what to discuss and bringing a lot of personal experience and opinions to
the discussion. The first part of the semester revolved around critically examining our own
positions in the systems of power and oppression and how those systems work around us. We
then spent a while preparing for our spring break trip with E.P.O.C.A (Ex-prisoners and Prisoners
Organizing for Community Advancement) in Worcester, Massachusetts. We spent a week
shadowing the organizers, helping out with door-knocking and phone bank, helping with manual
labor and attending various meetings and presentations. For the final six weeks of the semester,
we worked with a student organization at UMass to complete a zine about student power on
campus by collecting interviews, stories and artifacts from all different kinds of student power at
UMass. As can be expected by a 300 level anthropology class, the workload was very heavy and
the projects required us to meet many times outside of class. My intention for this year was to
explore community organizing and I was able to through this class so I was more than willing to
put in the countless hours into this work. There are very few opportunities in college to
experience a class of this kind so I highly recommend trying it out for anyone looking for a
challenging, insightful and rewarding experience.
Working at Hampshire
Semester I
When we arrived at Hampshire, we were told that, as exchange students, we were not eligible for
work study. Almost all jobs on campus are through work-study only which means that if you are
not eligible for work-study, you cannot work on campus. After talking to the financial aid and
work-study office a few times, we managed to be granted a maximum of five hours a week of
work-study for any job on campus we apply and are hired for. Having lived in cities or small
towns my entire life, I decided to work on the farm. I had recently started researching and
reading about the importance of local foods and the various ways to make farming and local
Morning chores at the farm.the pigs are still asleep
foods sustainable. The dinning commons at Hampshire receive as much produce and meat as
possible from the farm which reduces not only the cost but also reduces the transportation
pollution and provides a healthier option for students. There are several jobs available at the farm
and I chose the morning chores shift. The work of feeding the animals, cleaning or rearranging
their coops and making sure everything was in order. At times, the work felt tedious and
repetitive but for the most part, I learned a lot about farming and sustainability through the
other students I was paired with and the farmer. The Pioneer Valley is known for its local foods
movements, community sponsored agriculture (CSA), sustainable agriculture and farming
so if that is something you’re interested in, take advantage of the farm and its resources!
Semester II
While working at the farm, I started looking for a second job because since we were capped at
five hours a week, I was not able to make more than two-hundred dollars a month. Looking
online, I found a job announcement for a bilingual interpreter at the Amherst-Pelham
Regional High School. Three students from Congo had recently arrive to the United States and
were enrolling in the high school but because they did not speak English, the school was looking
for an interpreter to translate in class and during their study halls. I started working at the high
school in January when I returned from winter break, four hours a day, four times a week. I was
able to coordinate with my class schedule to work in the mornings and attend class in the
afternoon. My schedule second semester, therefore, was very busy and at times overwhelming
but I gained a lot from having to balance work and school and working at a public high school
while studying community organizing and critical pedagogy was an extremely valuable
perspective. Unfortunately, the high school is only able to hire students who have U.S.
citizenship or a permanent visa but, in case you do have either one of those and speak another
language, I recommend considering working at the high school!
Living at Hampshire
Hampshire College is located in the Pioneer Valley, a small region in Western Massachusetts.
Most of the region is fertile farmland, cornfields, small towns and prestigious universities. The
Five Colleges have a wonderful bus system known as the PVTA which travels to the five
colleges and as a Hampshire student, you can board the bus for free. The PeterPan Buslines
travel through the five colleges to New York City, Boston, Hartford and other big cities in the
east coast for an average of $25. Similar to Blablacar in France, there is “Five College Ride
Share” Facebook page where people regularly offer and search for rides. The beauty of having
five colleges in the middle of a valley is that whether you're looking for nature, a museum, a
party, an art exposition, a library, a cafe or a lake to jump in, you can find it in the pioneer valley.
The Pioneer Valley in the fall…
Semester I
Before arriving on campus, I was assigned to a roommate and a dorm even though I had
requested a mod - apartment style housing. Moving in, I found out that my roommate had
managed to be moved to a mod so I had a two person room to myself (also known as a “dingle). I
was told by the housing office that I could keep the dingle but if anyone needed to be moved they
could be moved at any moment into my room so I decided to switch to a single. Thankfully I did
not come with too much stuff so it was an easy move! You will see, students who are dropped off
by their parents in cars bring way too much stuff. Most of the students in the dorms are first
years, except for certain identity based halls such as substance free or transfer halls.
The main reason I did not want to be in the dorms is that living in the dorms requires students to
be on a full meal plan. Compared to most colleges, the dinning halls have fresh foods, a good
variety and plenty of options for vegans, vegetarians and gluten-free folks. The dinning hall
opens at 7:30 a.m., closes between 3 and 5pm and is closed for the night at 8 p.m. Having lived
in an apartment cooking my own meals for the past two years, it was a little difficult at first to
adjust to the dorms and dinning halls. Hampshire College is far from the “typical” American
college experience but, in my experience, the dorms and the dinning halls is the closest you will
find. The dorms are noisy at almost all hours of the night, regardless of the quiet hours, and most
of the halls smell like smoke. A lot of first years make their friends this way, hanging out in the
halls of their dorms. I did not spend much time in the dorms because most of my friends lived in
mods and I missed being able to cook my own food so when my friend offered me a room in her
mod for the second semester, I gladly accepted.
Semester II
The day before leaving for winter break, I frantically packed my room and moved into a new
room across campus in a housing “neighborhood” called Prescott. I returned in January to a new
room, again, and with four new mod-mates (a.k.a. roommates). Before arriving at Hampshire I
had read many rapports and several people mentioned the fact that dorms, rather than mods, were
better for meeting people and making friends. In my experience, it was quite the opposite.
Throughout the year, I became very close to my mod-mates, their friends and their friends’
friends. My work schedule meant that I left the campus before the dinning hall opened and
returned after the lunch shift was over so having a kitchen to cook in was crucial. Three of my
mod-mates and all of their friends were completing their Div III so I had the great opportunity to
learn about their projects and even help them out in the process. Both the mods and dorms can be
great experiences but know that if you are placed in a dorm your first semester, many people
leave to go abroad the second semester so you will surely have a chance to move into a mod if
you choose to.
Non Satis Scire
Hampshire College, To know is not enough?
Then do something about it.
Story-telling / Art / Taking Action
The questions that have been racking my brain since the beginning of the year all revolve around
this. Yes, to know is not enough, but what do we do? What do we do about the structures of
oppression and inequality we learn about? How do we do act upon them without reproducing
those systems and structures of oppression? How do we unlearn those systems in an institution?
How do we decolonize our minds in a colonized institution?
The capitalist, white supremacist, cis-heteronormative, anti-black, racist patriarchy world
These are words you cannot leave Hampshire without having heard many times and hopefully,
understood. You learn a lot through classes, Facebook posts and casual conversations with
friends but to really know, you have to push yourself out of your comfort zone and seek out the
information. Here are some ways you can do that:
Conferences/Talks/Panels:
There are over a hundred student groups at Hampshire and many of them are organizing for and
against different groups, causes and identities. For that reason, many incredible people come to
speak at Hampshire but it is often not well advertised so keep an eye out!
Some highlights include:
CeCe Mcdonald - An African American trans woman and LGBTQ activist who story inspired
the character, Lavern Cox, in Orange is the New Black.
Springfield No One Leaves - grassroots organization in Springfield in Massachusetts that
organizes residents most directly impacted by the housing crisis and economic inequality to build
collective power, defend against displacement and win long-term community ownership &
control over land and housing.
Movement for Justice in El Barrio - a community organization in East Harlem, New York
where residents organize and fight against gentrification in the city.
Naomi Klein - an author, social activist and filmmaker known for her criticism of capitalism and
globalization and famous for her book The Shock Doctrine.
Yasmine Chahkar Farhang - an immigration attorney at Make the Road NY, a community
organization based in five low-income immigrant, Latino and working class communities in New
York that builds power to achieve justice through community organizing, policy innovation,
education, and survival services.
Bernie Sanders - Bernie Sanders had his Massachusetts rally in UMass’ stadium. We stood in
line for over an hour and could barely see him but we could feel the energy in the stadium!
The more talks and panels I attended, the more people I talked to, the more I watched and read
the more I felt like I still needed to learn. At the end of every week, I was exhausted and
overwhelmed but I could not figure out why. I realize that, for the first time, I was learning not
from theory or removed situations, but from peoples’ real, personal stories. I learned that storytelling is an incredibly powerful and moving tool and vital to so many peoples’ survival.
Raices Slam Poetry night at Amherst College
Listen to stories!
tell your story
experience art, make art
Slam Poetry/Div III expositions
Having been raised in Chicago, the birthplace of slam poetry, I have always loved watching and
listening to slam poets. Throughout the year, I attended many slam poetry events put on either by
famous poets such as Sister Outsider or local students, and after every single one I was
speechless and full of thoughts. Once again, listen!
At the end of both semesters, many graduating students put on shows, theatre pieces and
expositions to present their work. Go, listen, watch and read! One of my close friends worked
tirelessly on a project she named Picture her Story where she collected stories and art
representations of sexual violence. This is just one example of a humbling, important, oftenmarginalized topic that Hampshire students choose to address in their final projects.
TAKE ACTION
This entire year, thoughts and feelings about the world and its structure and systems rumbled
through my head making me often angry and disillusioned until I realized, I could do something:
Sit-ins: UMass Amherst organized a week long sit in in their adminstrative building to fight for
full divestment from fossil fuels
All-Community Meeting: Hampshire College students called for an all-community meeting to
address demands. The meeting set off a serious of actions that will last until the next year.
Mattress Walk: As a part of a student’s Div III on stories of sexual violence, we walked around
the campus and into the neighboring community with mattresses on our heads chanting antirapists chants.
Students in all of the Five Colleges and community members throughout the valley are
organizing and there is so much we can learn from them. Listen, learn, get involved and take
action.
Mattress Walk
Divest Rally - Day 5
“On est plus a Sciences Po”
Culture shock in my own culture
I was born and raised in Chicago and only moved to France for university so when I decided to
return to the United States for university, I did not expect to experience any kind of culture
shock. I was, however, very wrong. The east coast is a bubble, the pioneer valley is another
bubble, private liberal arts colleges is another bubble and inside of all of that is another bubble,
Hampshire College. It is difficult for me to fully realize what I am experiencing because I am
still here, sitting in that bubble. There are a few notes that can begin to explain the Hampshire
bubble and why it is so different from Sciences Po.
-There are more services than you even realize, always available to you. I learned just yesterday
that I can get acupuncture for free at the health center. Advisors have reached out to me randomly
to just “see how I’m doing”.
- Students hold their university accountable - by protesting formal events and speeches - and
they can because it is a private college for which many students pay over 60 thousand dollars
a year. Protesting means that when an official person is about to take the microphone, a
student walks up, takes the microphone and begins speaking instead.
- All bathrooms are gender neutral and in every class/meeting/presentation people introduce
themselves with their names and preferred pronouns.
- Race, gender and class are talked about often, almost all the time.
- Hampshire College is a clothes optional campus, people love to walk around barefoot.
- In class, professors want to know what a specific reading or concepts “makes you feel”.
- You can get free massages at the wellness center where you also find buckets full of lubricant
and condoms.
- During my first Hampshire class, someone spoke up and said that poverty should have a
trigger warning.
- The school cancelled classes on afternoon to have all-community meeting to discuss sexual
assault and anti-blackness on campus.
Hampshire College and Sciences Po have very few points in common: from the geographical
setting to the academic structure, they are completely different. Pointing to all the differences is
tedious and besides the point. What I can speak to, however, is what you can gain from each
university that the other does not necessarily have.
At Sciences Po, I learned to develop a strong work ethic, endure stress, and push through
to succeed. I learned how to be an adult because I had to live in an apartment, paying bills and
rent, cooking and cleaning. I learned how to argue and hold my ground even with people who
could not be respective or agreeable. I learned to be analytical in my writing and presentation
skills.
All of these skills and experiences I came to Hampshire with and I am not sure how well
and quickly I would have adopted them had I spent four years at Hampshire. I never felt much
pressure to grow up, especially living on campus where bills, rent and cleaning are mostly taken
care of through the school. I was never confronted head on for my opinions or forced to argue
them strongly and analytically. For the most part, I handed my work on time but I always knew
that asking for an extension would be an easy fix. On the other hand, at Hampshire I learned how
to trust my instincts and be confident in my thoughts and projects. I learned how to and the
importance of taking care of myself. I learned that intelligence can take all different shapes and
sizes. I learned how to bring my personal experiences into my academic work and how that is not
a weakness but a strength. I learned, really, how to talk about race, class and gender.
What next?
Many times throughout the semester I considered not going back to Sciences Po for the masters
and instead staying in the United States to work for a year. I went into the third year looking for
community organizing and engaged learning and that is exactly what I found, so much so that I
was ready to leave school and get involved right away. I have been wanting action and real,
hands-on work since I started my undergrad and in my mind it was impossible to do both: school
and real world action. At Hampshire, I realized that I could do both. This year I learned that my
voice and my opinions matters, I do have power and I can make things change. I decided to go
back to Sciences Po in Paris while making sure to keep my toolkit of Hampshire knowledge
and experiences tucked in my brain. Endless talks, conversations and experiences have made me
realize that the kind of work I want to do, in the long term, requires a community. In order for
that community to happen, I need to build relationships and in order for that to happen, I need
to start living in one place for longer than a year.
I am excited and afraid at the thought of bringing my Hampshire experiences back to
France and back to Sciences Po. The greatest challenge will not be to readjust to stores closing
early or long administrative procedures but figuring out how to further my studies in France
without loosing the part of myself that came to be throughout this year. I feel as though this year
ignited a spark inside of me that was eager to be lit but could not quite figure out how to do it and
my job, now, is to make sure it does not burn out or fade away.
Annex
before you go:
•
The administrative procedure are clear and well explain in the documents provided by
Sciences Po.
•
I did not have to apply for a visa so I cannot provide any information on that or the
International Students Orientation
•
Make sure to check your Hampshire email regularly as soon as you get it so as not to miss
any deadlines for housing selections ect.
•
Matthew Shamey will be emailing you and his office is in front of the dining commons, do
not hesitate to go to him with anything!
Food
The full meal plan costs about 2,000 a semester and you can do as many times a day as you’d
like. If you decide to cook for yourself, there are several grocery stores in the area. Stop and
Shop has the cheapest groceries (milk, eggs, rice ect.) and Atkins Farm, a ten minute walk from
campus, had affordable and very fresh produce.
Transport
Flying to Hampshire can be a hassle because the buses are long and expensive. If you are willing
to pay $30 for a van, you can fly to Hartford and a van can pick you up and take you back to
Hampshire, about 45 minutes away. New York City is, oddly enough, the cheapest destination
by PeterPan bus lines. There is also a van service called VanGO which takes you to Boston for
$25.
If you enjoy biking, make sure to look out for an announcement by Hamp Wheels at the
beginning of each semester. They give out applications for students to borrow a bike for free for
the semester. There are many wonderful destinations to bike to in the area
If you enjoy hiking, stop by the OPRA office and someone will be delighted to give you some
spots to hike or camp in the area. There are plenty!
Travels
My parents live in Chicago so they were happy to have me home for winter break for the first
time in two years. For spring break, I went to Worcester with my community organizing class but
we did not explore much of the city. I went to New York City and Boston a few times. Ask
around Hampshire and the Sciences Po networks and you will surely find a place to stay for free!
Sun rising over the Pioneer Valley