VCU Honors College

Chris Walker

When Chris Walker describes his freshman-year arrival at Virginia Commonwealth University, he says to picture the average, small-town student who doesn’t know a soul or what he wants to study.

“I was like that – only times 10,” Walker said.

He grew up in Japan and only had one year of U.S. schooling under his belt before entering college. After exploring options at several state schools, a full scholarship brought Walker to VCU.

“I didn’t know exactly what I wanted to do, but I thought I could figure it out here,” he said.

Then during his freshman year, a friend told Walker about VCU’s Honors College. The ability to register early, enroll in Honors modules and learn in smaller classroom settings with a close connection to faculty all appealed to Walker.

But so did the Honors community.

“VCU is a huge place,” he said. “The Honors College is a tight-knit kind of thing. Honors students start to recognize each other on campus.”

Walker also appreciated the support of the Honors faculty and staff as he applied for and received two scholarships. In 2006, he studied abroad in Spain, thanks to the Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship.

Now an NSEP David L. Boren Undergraduate Scholarship recipient, Walker is completing his undergraduate experience in Romania through summer 2008.

The NSEP Boren awards scholarships to American students for study of world regions critical to U.S. interests. Its service requirement stipulates that recipients work in the federal government in positions with national security responsibilities for at least one year.

Walker worked with two VCU faculty members as he developed his application essay: Romanian native Marcel Cornis-Pope, professor of English and director of the interdisciplinary Ph.D. in Media, Art and Text, and Janet Rodgers, an associate professor in the Department of Theatre who takes a group of students to Romania each year through the Office of International Education.

When Walker received the e-mail notifying him that he’d been chosen for the scholarship, he printed it out and read it again and again.

“I got so excited and ran around and was like, ‘I’m going to Romania!,’” he said.

The NSEP Boren scholarship emphasizes the importance of language study as a major component of the study abroad program. Although Walker can only say “hi,” “thank you” and “yes” in Romanian, he’s accustomed to starting out in unfamiliar territory.

Only this time around, the nerves he felt when he came to VCU have been replaced with a determination to conquer a new challenge.

“I’m going to be the American in Romania who came with nothing,” Walker said. “But by the end of the year, I want to be so connected. My goal is to be missed when I leave.

“I just want to dive into the culture,” he said. “In my small way, as the crazy, cool American, maybe I can influence how they think of America.”