Wynn Wellington. Photo by Chloe White
What Franklin College may lack in student population numbers, it makes up for in opportunities for those students. As a senior, I can attest to this.
During my freshman year, I was on the FC Model United Nations team and traveled to New York City for a week with fellow students to compete at the international competition. Sophomore year I wrote a research paper with two classmates in our constitutional law class, and we got to present it at an undergraduate research conference at California State University, San Bernardino.
At the beginning of last spring semester, I embarked on perhaps my most exciting FC experience to date: I studied abroad for the entire semester (four months), in Stockholm, Sweden. Although it sounds cliche, those four months really were a life changing time for me, and I couldn’t be more grateful to have gotten to see the world and step out of my comfort zone for that time.
In fact, I’ve just started getting “one year ago today” memories from Stockholm, which has me feeling very nostalgic as I sit in the basement of the Indiana Statehouse on this dreary January day.
Despite remembering that last Jan. 12. I was in Stockholm, I’m very excited to be taking advantage of another unique piece of Franklin College this year: The Statehouse File. It isn’t very often that you find such a small school that allows students to try their hand at being journalists right alongside the pros.
I will graduate in May with a bachelor’s in political science and a minor in multimedia journalism. It’s scary to admit to myself and to everyone who asks, but I still don’t have a good answer for what I want to do when I graduate or, as they say when you’re young, what I want to be when I grow up.
The Statehouse File just happens to be a perfect blend of my major and minor, so I’m excited to know if it helps me answer that nagging question above about the rest of my life.
Immersive term at Franklin is only three weeks long, and we’re already into week 2, but so far I’ve been enjoying my time and learning a lot. I co-wrote an article that explained a House bill about virtual currency kiosks, and I took pictures of a rally hosted at the Statehouse. Our group also got to take a tour of the Statehouse and sit in the House, Senate and Supreme Court chambers (somehow I missed the fourth-grade field trip to the Statehouse).
I’m excited to keep chasing my goals for this short time at TSF and conquering my small fear of walking up to a legislator and hopefully getting them to answer my questions.
I already know my last semester at Franklin College will pass in the blink of an eye, but thanks to the many opportunities I’ve had here, I know the world is my oyster.
Wynn Wellington is a reporter for TheStatehouseFile.com, a news site powered by Franklin College journalism students.