Washington and Lee University
Hometown: New Orleans, LA
Major: Middle East Studies
Extracurricular Involvement:
Off-Campus Experiences:
Favorite W&L Activity: Das Klub
Struggling to make a final decision on where to attend college, I visited my two top choices in one weekend. I spent Friday and Saturday night at one school, and Sunday and Monday night at Washington and Lee. The moment that I walked onto W&L’s campus, I knew that I was ready to tell my parents where I would be going to college.
By the numbers, the two schools were fairly evenly matched. Their academic and extracurricular offerings—even their histories—were similar. The deciding factor turned out to be the students themselves. Anyone who has the opportunity to visit Washington and Lee, even if only briefly, cannot help but notice the curious spark in the students’ faces, the intangible excitement that they seem to possess by simply being where they are. While this probably seems like an arbitrary and subjective criterion upon which to base a final decision, I’ve come to realize that what I saw in W&L students four years ago is something that I still see every day in my fellow students--something that stems from the guiding principles of this institution.
Simply put, W&L is a university that truly respects its students. The trust that Washington and Lee places in its students can most easily be seen in the structure of the Honor System, which is entirely student-run, student-driven, and student-defined. Individual honor here is not a vague conceptual virtue to intellectualize and attempt to internalize, but a real term, with real consequences and real rewards. The high expectations to which the students are held not only creates a community of trust throughout the campus, but encourages individual responsibility and student initiative. Students here understand that if an opportunity is not readily available, they need only ask, and the campus community will do everything within its power to help.
One of the most concrete examples of this in my own W&L experience has been the process of determining my major. During my freshman year I discovered a keen interest in the Middle East, and I decided that I wanted to pursue a degree in that area. Since no immediately applicable major was available in the catalog, my freshman-year adviser encouraged me to create my own major. In my four years here, that process has involved a summer of studying Arabic at an international language institute in California, a term abroad in Cairo, an internship with the Senate Foreign Relations Committee through W&L’s Washington Term program, an internship with the State Department’s Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs, Arabic classes at W&L’s next-door neighbor, Virginia Military Institute, and an incredible personal commitment of time and energy from numerous professors and deans.
W&L does not just foster a student’s academic strengths; it challenges the individual to develop a greater sense for social interactions, ethical decisions, and personal initiative. It invests its resources in its students, and the students know it. You can see it in their faces.
