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I ELIZABETH GRAY VINING Far Beyond Bryn Mawr: The International Network THERE w As NE v ER A TIME when the international aspect of Bryn Mawr was not in evidence. M. Carey Thomas had studied abroad and was vigorously aware of what European universities had to offer American education. Several of the earliest faculty were imported; after r 892, ten resident fellowships at the College existed for foreign stu­ dents, and by the first decade of the twentieth century, four European fellowships were established for graduating seniors. In 1965, a Com­ monwealth Africa Scholarship made it possible for Bryn Mawr grad­ uates to study or teach in former British colonies in Africa. And in 1973, the Elizabeth Gray Vining Scholarship Fund was established "to support Bryn Mawr alumnae, graduate students or faculty members who desire to do academic research in Japan or to have direct contact with Japanese culture." Indeed, Bryn Mawr graduates were to be found everywhere in the world (as Emily Vermeule has described) , making and witnessing history. Alice Boring, Class of 1904, visiting professor of Biology at Yenching University, described "The Funeral of Sun Yat Sen" for readers of a 1925 Bryn Mawr Alumnae Bulletin; Anna Louise Strong (Class of 1906), wrote from Russia in that same year of how, as a correspondent for H earst's International Magazine, she still could "take time off to give English lessons to Trotsky . .. for three months, learn­ ing from him the real feeling of the Russian revolution." To be sure, scholarship itself assumed a knowledge of the world and its tongues. Bryn M awr's language requirements were famed and d rea d e d for much of its history, although lacer t h e " ora 1s " as thes. e were called became written examinations; eventually language req u1rements Were broadened to include mathematics. Today, Bryn Mawr language • - _ _. _ - AY igno n. Flo rence. M adri d. M oscow, and T. i11 s11turcs c:--is t 111 • - 1 ' . n er. • - J • n,--ird Pres ident T 10 111 as 111t cr11 ati o nal c0 111 . Mi,s 1',1rk orrn:u 10 · , , . llllt- ELIZABETH GRAY VINING _· rl, . rroubkd vca rs o f thL Seco nd Wo 1Id War, and Har.· cnrs Ll u11 11 g L _ , . _ ·d l , , _ . · 11 s 111 . d J _- 1 · presid ency estabhshc t 1e l11t u 11 ati o 11 a] Advi·s Woftor . u u1111 g 11 5 ' . - . ory . - 1 stinporred rh e exa m111 :1t10 11 o t g lo b.ii issues on the ca Counc1 . " 111 c 1 , _ _ . _ _ _ , 111- 1 . .• ,cem s hu11u111t :n1 :111 dfoi ts. ,111d po litical activi't• pus. ua k· e11 v c 01 · . _ . 1es Q the cosm o po htaii qualities with w hich the Colle have strcngt 11 en Cd ge began. · - 11 · 1 · Bur the story Eli zabeth G ray V 11111i g re s 1ere 1s no t of w hat the • tLideiit" ]ea rned o r w here rh cv wcnr o r w h at they have doii A n1 en ca n s ., ' . _' . e, but ofrh c great gifts of presence. d1versn y, and quality which have been bestowed 011 the College by its foreign students. In recent years, these women have fo rmed a tenth of the student bo d y and represented as ,, J w AN T To TELL Y O u, and please tell President Thomas t ,, m any as forty different countries._ One o~.them , Mid1i Kawai, Class of w ro te Ida de Bobula, a Hungarian student, in 1924- 2 5, "that I ~~~c 6, dedica ted one of her books 111 I 9 50 To m y_ fnends of o ther lands 190 carried with m e some of the Bryn M awr spirit over the ocean. I have w hose soft touch of understandmg and open-mmdedness w ill readily given it to others, to a younger set, and I hope they will give it to others induce any door of m y country to shdc to let them sec even our inner again, in order to m ake women here freer, better and happier." Her chamber. the real J apanese heart." This essay honors in turn all those sentiments echo and are echoed by m any of the foreign students who fo reign students w hose own courage, understanding, and fa ir-mind­ have com e to Bryn M awr, but w hose contribution to the spirit of the edness have opened, for Bryn M awr, the doors to self-know ledge and College was as great as what they gained and w hat they car ried away the wider reaches of the human heart. w ith them . H er message would have pleased Miss Thomas who was convinced of the value of international contributions to offset Ameri­ can provincialism, and w ho was herself educated in Europe and re­ mained, throughout her li fe, an ardent internationalist and intrepid traveler. After Ida, it was almost sixty years before another Hunga rian student arrived to join the class of 1987. Andrea Madarassy was one of thirty- seven entering foreign students (in a class of 299) from some twenty-four countries across the world.' Nearly a century earlier, when Bryn Mawr opened its doors, there were no foreign students amon g the thirty-six undergraduates of the It is particularly the presence among us of students from foreign countries who Jog us into an awareness that ours is not th e only world of thought, the only first class. It was not until 1 889 that one appeared from Croydon, Eng­ language , the only national point of view, that "God's own co untry" stretch es land-Jessie Ellen Barritt, of the Class of 1892. Few though they were, far beyond our na ti onal boundaries, even to th e uttermost ends of Cathay. ' For the generous time they gave me I am es peciall y indebted to L_ucy Fisher West, College Archivist; President Mary Patterson McPherson; Elizabeth G. ELINOR B. AMRAM '28 Vermey, Director of Admissions; and Charles Robert Heyduk , Director of Student Services. Sources fo r this essay have been histories of Tsuda College and Keisen, My Lamem and S lidi ,1g Doo rs by Michi Kawai, the files of the Bryu Mawr A lumnae R eg ister, the Bry11 Mawr A lum nae Quarterly, the Bryn Mawrnd I am no visionary, so I see nothing, but, like a lantern lit, one of the symbols of A lumna e Bull etin , Commencement Programs , personal corres pondence. a th 0 our College, I am standing on th e mountaintop and letting th e li ght you kin­ other material in the Coll ege Archi ves. Throughout, I have used e names 1~ · · h h . 11· 1 college Many o dl ed 111 my heart alm os t twenty yea rs ago shine far and wide. th e mternat1onal students as they were w en t ey were · th h th em, perhaps most of them. have since married. They can be traced roug DORA OB I C HI ZE A ' 69 the Alumnae Register. 203 202 1111111 r - . •• -] . fo rcia n students i11 the College's hi sto r y were t Coll ege Cambridge, w ho ca m e in g a d k ,llllll' l l i ( 1!(lSl l,l l ) ~ 0 1 93 .' . n too a Ph D 111. M _,. l I · 1·v ·s 11 0 11 c rn o r L· so th:m th:1t of a youn g wom an w]10 m a tics m 1 896, was an o utstandmg succcs · · ath c- k.lli rt'lll,11 .. .1) l I l . " . ' . , I s. 111 1905 her pl . J .. "special student 111 1 XX9, w ho st:1yed fo r two aiid fi g ures in the Senio rs Cass Book among thcf; 1otograp h ,·.1111c tro1 11 JpJn ,l s ·1 · ' ' . I k ac u1 t y as re cord · d I She has a romantic oo am o ng the other wo ing can. h.ilf ye:irs but did no t graduate. • I · • men w I1 0 resolu tcl f; d .. --_ d "S" ve ry speciJI stud rnt 111d ecd . She had com e to the the cam era 111 s 11rtwa1sts and tics. Her hea d • Y ace U ill l' 1 Sil J W" " · . is turned to show h • d S · 1,, , .1s· schild o f scve11 , thcyo1111 gcst offivc j apancsc o u th fu l pro fi1l e an d swan-like neck, bare in an fif.- h h er U 11 nc ta tes 111 " 7 • " · . · Y· J d h · 0 t c-s ould cr eve- • I .. to study by thc j :i pancse govcr11111 c11t. w hich o nl y eleven n mg dress. n m y ay s c was assistant to the prcs id k !..( Ir 1S SCI! t l C I C , _ . " I M d " cnt, nown to th e y• ears ca1-1 1· c1· li ,·i d c- 111 c1·gcd fro m its two- and-. a. -halt century isolation · ti1 stu d cnts as zzy a . xx 2 she returned to J apan to teach Eng lish 111 the newly o pened Peer- In th e year of Miss M addison's Ph. D. 18 6 Al ett v 1 1 . I d c: ' 9 ' a an 1,cy pcn esses' School.

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