The first international student enrolled in 1839 (two years after the college鈥檚 founding), marking the beginning of growing international student diversity at the college, with over 600 students from more than 50 countries today.
The first domestic student studied abroad in 1928 (in Paris), experiencing the profound personal and professional impact of immersion in a culture different from one鈥檚 own.
Mount Holyoke President Mary Woolley (1901-1937) was the only female participant in the U.S. government delegation to the international disarmament conference in Geneva in 1932; a shining example of our commitment to make the world a better place.
Politics professor Ruth Lawson established the first 果冻传媒 international internship program in 1949, enabling students to see their studies, career paths, and themselves in new and expanded ways.
Over the decades Mount Holyoke developed a rich array of internationally-focused curricular and co-curricular offerings. Then in 2003, our faculty and trustees decided that the realities of an increasingly globalizing world demanded that we make comprehensive internationalization a strategic priority. The College established the McCulloch Center for Global Initiatives to implement internationalization within the entire community of faculty, students, staff, and alums and to extend MHC鈥檚 international involvement to a network of organizations around the globe that focus on social justice, health, business, environment, culture, science and technology, and share MHC鈥檚 values and principles.
In collaboration with our faculty and staff colleagues, support from the College leadership and alums, and in partnership with foundations and organizations around the world, we have been weaving global education into the fabric of a Mount Holyoke education.