{"id":1295,"date":"2026-08-17T14:26:39","date_gmt":"2026-08-17T14:26:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/studyingabroad\/?p=1295"},"modified":"2026-08-17T14:27:11","modified_gmt":"2026-08-17T14:27:11","slug":"givens-scholarship-cole-williams","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/studyingabroad\/2026\/08\/17\/givens-scholarship-cole-williams\/","title":{"rendered":"Givens Scholarship | Cole Williams \u201927"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

When I applied for the Givens Scholarship, I knew I wanted to experience art abroad in more ways than just walking through museums and looking at artwork behind glass. I’d spent eight years singing in choir and performing in school musicals, so I already knew I enjoyed the performing arts. But during my semester in Prague, Czech Republic, the Givens Scholarship allowed me to explore that interest in a completely different setting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of my favorite courses abroad was History of Art II. Almost every week we visited a different museum, gallery, or historic site around Prague, which made the class feel a lot more engaging than sitting through lectures. It had the same kind of discussion-driven feel that I’ve always appreciated about my classes at Wabash. Rather than looking at pictures in a textbook or slideshow, we stood in front of paintings, sculptures, and architecture while our professor walked us through them, pointing out things we never would have noticed on our own. Outside of class, I kept that going while I traveled, visiting museums like the Pinacoteca di Brera in Milan and the Hungarian National Gallery in Budapest. Those experiences made me appreciate how much more meaningful art is when you can see it where it belongs. However, after spending so much time in museums, I still wanted to experience another side of art while I was in Europe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That’s what led me to one of my favorite memories from studying abroad: attending Rossini’s The Barber of Seville (Lazebn\u00edk sevillsk\u00fd) at Prague’s historic National Theatre. I’d never been to an opera before, so I didn’t really know what to expect walking in. I got there early so I could explore the theatre before the performance started. I wandered through the many different levels, looked out over the balconies, and realized I was finally about to do something I’d wanted to experience for quite some time. I’d packed for four months abroad, not for a night at the opera, so I did the best I could with the nicest clothes I had. When the house lights went down and the orchestra began the overture, I got chills. The sound was so much bigger than I expected, and between that and the architecture around me, it felt like the whole building was part of the performance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Cole<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Before that night, my idea of an opera mostly came from movies, and I expected it to be slow and difficult to follow. Instead, I was surprised by how entertaining it was. The performance had both Czech and English subtitles, so I could follow the story the entire time, and I ended up laughing a lot more than I expected during what turned out to be a comedy. Most people probably wouldn’t expect a linebacker on the football team to say one of his favorite memories from Europe was going to the opera, but I think that’s exactly why it has stayed with me. Studying abroad pushed me to try things I never would have done at home, and some of those ended up being the experiences I’ll remember the longest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am incredibly grateful to the Givens family for making opportunities like these possible. Their generosity allowed me to explore museums, attend my first opera, and try things I never would have on my own. Those experiences made my semester abroad even more meaningful, and I will carry them with me for the rest of my life.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When I applied for the Givens Scholarship, I knew I wanted to experience art abroad in more ways than just walking through museums and looking at artwork behind glass. I’d spent eight […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":194,"featured_media":1297,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1295","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-study-abroad"],"w_featured_image_url":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/studyingabroad\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/13\/2026\/08\/Cole-Williams_Givens-Spring-2026_IMG_6716-768x1024.jpeg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/studyingabroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1295","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/studyingabroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/studyingabroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/studyingabroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/194"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/studyingabroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1295"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/studyingabroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1295\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1299,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/studyingabroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1295\/revisions\/1299"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/studyingabroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1297"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/studyingabroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1295"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/studyingabroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1295"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/studyingabroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1295"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}