Away up North

Senior Anthony Diebold is the first Rhode Island College National Student Exchange (NSE) student to cross the border to Canada. During Fall Semester 2019, he studied for five months at the University of Montreal in Quebec, taking a full load of courses all taught in French​​.

“With the language courses I took at RIC, I was well-prepared,” Diebold said. “Although sometimes when I’d go into a store and speak French they’d answer me in English. They said I spoke French with an Anglophone accent.” (So much for passing for a Québécois).

Diebold is a world languages major, with a concentration in French and a minor in Spanish. He chose to study in Quebec not to perfect his French but to learn more about his French Canadian ancestors, some of whom hailed from the Great White North.

He chose the NSE program for studying abroad because it was the most affordable. NSE students pay RIC tuition while studying at NSE member colleges and universities in the United States, Canada, Guam, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Diebold was able to afford living expenses thanks to a $6,000 Shinn Study Abroad Scholarship.

A junior, when Diebold graduates from RIC, he intends to teach high school French and Spanish. Currently, he works evenings as a teaching assistant in a Spanish adult literacy class at the Olneyville Neighborhood Association. He said he looks forward to a career teaching languages and making it fun for teens.

NSE requires that students be undergraduates, have a minimum 2.5 GPA, complete at least one academic term at the home campus before applying and be in good standing. For more information, contact NSE Coordinator Sara Reilly at 456-8083 or email sreilly@ric.edu.