Welcome to the Fries Center for Global Studies, Wesleyan’s hub for intercultural and multilingual engagement. Building on the decades of experience at Wesleyan with education abroad, international studies, and language education, the Fries Center was founded in 2015. In 2022, President Michael Roth issued a Presidential Statement on Internationalization that makes explicit what we mean by “internationalization” and sets forth a range of goals for the next five years. The Fries Center’s many inter-related functions and activities can be accessed via our main menu. We also maintain an active blog featuring activities and opportunities (see below) and send out a newsletter every other week with highlights from the blog. Subscribe to the Wes and the World Newsletter here.

The Fries Center tracks and publicizes international events on campus. To submit an event, use the form here. Upcoming events include:

 

Wesleyan and the World

The Power of Language in Love: Why Learning a Language Matters

By Charlotte Li ’28 When we think about what language can do for us, we often imagine it as a key that could unlock grand possibilities. It could open the door to new careers, unlock a foreign world and culture, and connect us to new people. We imagine language as a passport to somewhere else,…

A Semester of Learning and Exploration in Cape Town 

By Sara Larson ’27 Academic Life Through the CIEE Arts and Sciences program, I have started my semester taking three classes at the University of Cape Town and one class with my CIEE program. UCT is a large university with nearly 30,000 students, so it has been interesting attending lectures with more than 200 students. At UCT I…

Scout Mckibben-Baier Becomes First Wes Voyager Scholar

Scout McKibben-Baier ‘27 has become the first Wesleyan University student to receive the Obama-Chesky Voyager Scholarship for Public Service. As one of 100 Voyager Scholars selected nationwide in 2025, Mckibben-Baier, an English major and minor in civic engagement, will be working with the Obama Foundation, with funding from Airbnb CEO and co-founder Brian Chesky, to…
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