Catching up with Grace Forrest (Pre-University Honours Politics & Society)

By Luzie Voß 

Over the past few years we have been happy to run a variety of pre-university honours programmes, designed to provide high school students (16+) with a unique university experience. During these two-week courses, students live with their peers and dive into an academic topic with daily classes, guest lectures and field trips: they can get to know what it’s like to study in an international environment while enjoying the city of Amsterdam. For this alumni portrait I have caught up with Grace Forrest, who followed our pre-university honours programme in politics and society in 2018!  

 Grace is from the United States and is about to start her second year at the University of Amsterdam, where she is enrolled in the Bachelor’s in Linguistics. Grace: ‘I chose to move to Amsterdam to study for the change of environment, the highly ranked academics, cost of tuition being more affordable than at home, and just the overall amazing vibe that I experienced the first time during my summer program!’  

Since Grace came to us from halfway around the world, I wanted to know what inspired her to follow our programme: ‘I studied in Spain when I was 15 for a trimester, and I was looking the following year to study abroad again but on a smaller scale during the summer, and I came across this programme! It looked really organized and challenging, and the topic of identity politics is a passion of mine.’

 Grace had a wonderful experience in our summer programme, and this led her to pursue higher education at our University. I asked her to reflect on specific memories she had from her summer with us. Grace: ‘Every day we had a very challenging and informative lesson in the morning with an interactive excursion or activity in the afternoon, which really put into practice what we had just learned. My professors were knowledgeable and fun to be around, and I always felt comfortable expressing my opinions and contributing to discussions.’ Specifically the discussion on LGBTQIA+ history in the Netherlands stuck in her mind. She specifically remembers the class on homonationalism, a concept which she hadn’t been introduced to before.

While the programme often uses the Netherlands as a tangible example to contextualize the topics covered, students are also able to apply them in their home contexts, as Grace did afterwards with a project of hers. ‘I used a lot of insights from the course on systemic racism in governmental structures as well as information from my school’s racial literacy course to design a simplified diversity awareness and racial literacy curriculum for elementary schoolers in the Princeton Public School systems.’ This involved her teaching lessons twice per month with interactive readings that would then also be shared with the families of the students. In this way she was able to apply and spread the knowledge and strategies she acquired in the summer programme.

We often say that one of the most important aspects of summer programmes is the community that is fostered around a specific subject. Grace has definitely embraced this, as she is still in touch with people from her cohort and even went to visit a few of them last summer. Five other students from her pre-university course have or will soon begin their Bachelor studies at the University of Amsterdam as well. ‘We get lunch sometimes, video call a lot, and just check in when we want to. It’s really nice knowing I already had an amazing community coming here.’

 Grace has evidently gotten a lot out of joining our summer programme: she has gained knowledge within the topic of politics and society, found a new home in Amsterdam, and made lots of new friends. To anyone considering joining us in the future she says: ‘If you’re able to do it, 100% do it. It really is unlike anything else and leaves you with memories for years after!’

Would you like to get in touch with Grace to ask her more about her experience in Amsterdam? Contact us at summer-info-gsss@uva.nl