International routes offer a fast track to master’s degrees

For Sarah Repko ’19, home is where you never feel lonely, no matter who is around. This is where you have a sense of peace, comfort and community.

Sarah Repko ’19 poses in front of the Guggenheim Museum on a bridge leading to Deusto, where she is on track to earn a Masters degree in Spain, thanks to one of UMW’s new 4 + 1 international courses.

That’s what Repko found at the University of Mary Washington, and that’s what she found nearly 4,000 miles away in Bilbao, Spain. There she obtained a master’s degree in international relations and business diplomacy at the Universidad de Deusto. And it is on the right track for that, thanks to one of the many new 4 + 1 partnerships between UMW and schools abroad. Pathways allow students to earn a master’s degree in half the time, while immersing themselves in culture outside of the United States

The undulating Nervión river. Charming and pedestrianized neighborhoods. The food – salty pintxo, rich spanish omelet. Repko embraced everything and soon after arriving in the Spanish port city for her first study abroad experience, she found herself texting Center for International Education (CIE) director Jose Sainz.

“For the past few weeks that I have been in Bilbao, I have thought about either returning home or staying for an additional semester…”, she wrote in the winter of 2018. “Could this be possible and what should I do?

Repko sits at the top of the Bilbao brand in Spain, where she is earning a master’s degree in international relations and trade diplomacy from the Universidad de Deusto.

Repko obtains a master’s degree from the Universidad de Deusto, thanks to one of UMW’s 4 + 1 international course agreements with schools abroad. The Mary Washington Center for International Education also offers programs in Spain, France, England and Wales, one of which is underway in Ireland.

From left to right, the director of the Center for International Education Jose Sainz, who visited Bilbao last month, joins Repko, and Kymberly Laver and Liliana Ramirez (also UMW students studying abroad in Bilbao ), as well as Sainz’s longtime friend Jon De Miguel.

So after not one but two semesters abroad, the last few months in Mary Washington and a pandemic that has reduced international travel for more than a year – while Repko was teaching Spanish in the United States – she is back in Bilbao, this time as a graduate student headed for a career abroad.

“She was the perfect candidate to take advantage of our international 4 + 1 routes,” Sainz said of the programs available in Spain, France, England and Wales, with one in the works in Ireland.

Sarah Repko ’19 said UMW felt right at home from the moment she arrived on campus. She had the same feeling during her first study abroad stay in Bilbao, Spain.

Repko graduated in Spanish from UMW in December 2019. She was due to walk in May 2020, but due to the pandemic she was unable to attend an official ceremony until last spring. Here she is standing by the Center for International Education sign in front of Lee Hall.

Repko had completed six years of middle school and high school Spanish in Mechanicsville, Va., By the time she enrolled in Mary Washington. She majored in Spanish, did internships at the College of Education, volunteered on weekends and spent a lot of time at CIE. “Studying abroad was the most important thing for me,” she said. “The more I was in Bilbao, the more I wanted to stay. I thought it would be better to finish my Spanish studies in Spain.

Courses in subjects such as geopolitics, sustainable business development, international trade and politics, plus an internship completion requirement – oh, and next to that she is learning the Basque language of Basque – leave little behind. of recreational opportunities. But Repko fits in, making time for long Spanish lunches, avoiding the raindrops to explore the city and soaking up a landscape she describes as extraordinary.

Repko poses in front of the Coliseum in Rome. The former Mary Washington University student, who spent a year abroad as an undergraduate student before returning to Bilbao, Spain to pursue a master’s degree, jokes that she saw more from Europe than the United States.

Repko poses in front of Saint Patrick’s Cathedral in Dublin, Ireland.

Repko in the main square in Prague, Czech Republic.

All the while, she keeps in touch with her family in the United States through phone calls, video chats, photos and texts, like the one she sent to Sainz three winters ago when she felt at home for the first time in Bilbao.

“She is motivated and determined to achieve the goals she set for herself, and being in Spain now is a real testament to how she pursues her personal, professional and academic goals,” said Sainz. “These programs were created to meet the needs of students, like Sarah, who are returning from studies abroad hungry for more international opportunities.”

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