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Global Opportunities

Spelman College (USA) Summer Exchange

In collaboration with Spelman College and London (UK) Chapter of The Links, Incorporated (hereafter referred to as “the London Links”), Queen Mary is offering one funded short-term ‘immersion’ mobility opportunity for an undergraduate Queen Mary full-degree, female-identifying student who self-identifies as part of the African Diaspora.

If selected, you would meet and buddy-up with a visiting student from Spelman College while they attend session 1 of the Queen Mary Summer School 2024, 30 June – 18 July 2025. Then, you would attend the historic Spelman College in Atlanta (Georgia) in the USA for the start of their academic year for three weeks, dates are TBC at present but the programme will take place from mid-August-early September. Tuition fees will be waived for participants in both programmes.

The London Links will cover the cost of travel and accommodation for the selected Queen Mary student. The selected student would need to cover subsistence, local transportation in Atlanta and other related costs (e.g. passport, ESTA fee). Among other requirements, you must hold or be entitled to apply for a UK passport in order to be eligible to participate.

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Application Deadline: TBC

Applications are due to open in late January 2025

For full details on this opportunity including how to apply, please consult the below documentation (PDF flyer with full details + accessible PDF document also with full details):

For questions, please email summerschool@qmul.ac.uk.

Spelman College, a historically Black college and a global leader in the education of women of African descent, is dedicated to academic excellence in the liberal arts and sciences and the intellectual, creative, ethical, and leadership development of its students.

Through diverse learning modalities, Spelman empowers the whole person to engage the many cultures of the world and inspires a commitment to positive social change. Today Spelman's student body comprises more than 2,100 students from 43 states and 10 foreign countries.

For the past 15 years, Spelman College has been ranked #1 on the list of Historically Black Colleges and Universities.

The Links, Incorporated is a charitable organisation founded in 1946 by Sarah Strickland Scott and Margaret Roselle Hawkins, in Philadelphia, PA USA. Members come from variety of industries and are committed to espousing the ideals of friendship and service through delivering comprehensive philanthropic programs. Today the organisation serves international communities through its membership with chapters across the United States, United Kingdom and the Bahamas.

After serving the London community in partnership with other charitable groups for several years, the London (UK) Chapter was chartered in 2018 as the 288th chapter of The Links, Incorporated and was later separately registered as a charity and non-profit company by limited guarantee operating in England. The London (UK) Chapter supports women and youth providing mentoring, career skills workshops and other support to enable them to progress into higher education and working society.

If your application is successful and you go on to participate in the Spelman College summer exchange, you are eligible to have this completed, GO-managed summer/short-term placement abroad permanently recognised on your official Queen Mary transcript: the Higher Education Achievement Report (HEAR). This is optional and does not affect your Queen Mary degree classification, nor does the result you achieved abroad appear on your HEAR.

To request to have your placement abroad included on your HEAR

You must complete the 3-week placement in full. You would then submit a short reflective journal to summerschool@qmul.ac.uk within the week following the end of your short-term/summer placement in Atlanta (exact deadline will be communicated to you by the GO team).

You would receive the blank template of this document by email along with other contractual paperwork pre-departure. You must also fulfill the other mandatory "after mobility" requirements per your Checklist by the stated deadlines (e.g. submitting requested paperwork).

The GO team then sends Registry a list of those students who completed a summer/short-term placement abroad and who have met the requirements by the deadline. Once processed by Registry, the entry would appear on your HEAR as a QM Extra under section 6.1, as “GO Summer! Short-term summer school placement abroad.

Note: If you wish for your Spelman College summer exchange placement abroad to be included on your HEAR, you must request and complete the above within this time window, directly after your placement finishes. It is not possible to request this later during your studies at Queen Mary or after graduation.

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