Through My Eyes, In My Words:

Medieval Architecture in Northern Europe: Belgium, Germany, and the Netherlands

Taught by Leonard A. Van Gulick, Matthew Baird Professor of Mechanical Engineering and chair of the B.S. engineering/A.B. International Studies program, and Ellouise Van Gulick, visiting part-time instructor, VAST

Tom Soldan of Fredericksburg, Va., is a Marquis Scholar majoring in history and government & law. A varsity baseball pitcher, he has been named to the Patriot League all-academic team. He is a member of Phi Alpha Theta, the national honor society for history. Vice president of Sports Marketing Club, he is a member of Newman Association and Phi Gamma Delta fraternity.

For the record, this type of unique study-abroad opportunity was one of the primary factors in my decision to attend Lafayette. Along with the chance to compete in athletics at the Division I level, the interim abroad program was the factor that certainly set Lafayette apart from others at a similar academic level. I was not surprised to find that the majority of my interim class felt exactly the same way. As a group, the class consisted of exactly 75 percent student-athletes, current or former, with the rest of the group having other on-campus commitments that would have made going abroad for an entire semester difficult. The Lafayette interim program allows the multifaceted scholar to experience the uniqueness of foreign study in a compact package, while creating a situation in which the student is able to satisfy all his or her commitments.

The trip to Belgium, the Netherlands, and Germany was especially insightful to me because the subject of study was architecture, specifically the great medieval structures built following either Gothic or Romanesque guidelines. I am not an art history major, nor am I a civil engineer; however, I was able to explore my interests in medieval architecture in the classroom during an [on-campus] interim 2003 course taught by Mrs. Van Gulick. This course fanned my interest in medieval building, but I was only able to see the structures in pictures or video until this trip. Now I was able to view, and touch, the same type of architecture that is nearly impossible to find anywhere else in the world.

Additionally, the course abroad also focused on the artwork often found in the Romanesque and Gothic structures of Northern Europe, and how the interaction between art and architecture aided the development of both forms. With her husband, Professor Leonard Van Gulick of Lafayette's esteemed civil engineering department, aiding the group in its travel and architecture, Mrs. Van Gulick was able to bring her classroom concepts to life. I highly recommend that any student traveling abroad take a class in something similar to what they will be studying abroad, it makes the new discoveries that much more worthwhile if you are able to understand the concepts while experiencing something new and fantastic for the first time.

The subject of the course may have been art and architecture in northern Europe, but it could have just as easily been a sociological study of the same region with a concentration on the aforementioned topics. Our group quickly learned the multicultural intermingling that is prominent in that region of the world, and most of us felt somewhat isolated as single-language speakers when the people around us could easily transition between as many as five languages, including English. After the initial cultural shock, however, we soon became adept at finding the things that made our stay more comfortable, whether it was reading street signs to a local park to go for a run, or reading a menu in German, Dutch, or French in order to have a desirable meal.

One of the main reasons that this trip was so attractive, at least according to the majority of our group, was that it traveled across a wide variety of areas, both provincially and culturally. There were unique qualities to each area we entered, whether it was the bustling city life in European Union capital city Brussels, the modern, college atmosphere in Maastricht, or the sleepy qualities of the German cities Speyer and Trier. There was truly something to meet every personality on this trip, and I believe that if you ask each student individually, they would all point out different favorite cities and different activities that they will remember forever.

I will say it again, this was truly a unique opportunity, and coming from a scholar-athlete whose sport is very active in both fall and spring, this was the opportunity for me to travel abroad and see things that I would have never been able to see on my own for the same amount of time and money. Additionally, the Marquis Scholars program was highly visible in this group, with slightly less than half of the group entering Lafayette as Marquis Scholars.

This trip is truly a reward for them, and as a Marquis Scholar myself I admit that I have been following the interim schedules, and subsequent student feedback, from the very day I set foot on the Lafayette campus. I waited until senior year to take advantage of Lafayette's generous gift, but I firmly believe it was well worth the wait. The interim and summer [in May, following final exams] abroad programs have become wildly popular since I first enrolled at Lafayette, and I encourage both the students to take advantage of the great prospects placed before them as well as the administration to continue the expansion of the program and constantly keep it fresh, imaginative, and unique.