“Classes are small, engaging, and feed off the unfailing enthusiasm of the professors,” says Eli Weiner ’10, a Bard College at Simon’s Rock student. He’s not talking about the Simon’s Rock classroom; he’s describing his experience studying with the Bard Globalization and International Affairs (BGIA) program in New York City. In fact, Weiner likes the program so much that he decided to forgo a semester abroad, choosing instead to stay in New York with BGIA for another semester. He wasn’t the only one.

Not surprising, says Sue Lyon, director of academic and career resources. “Our students go there and they don’t want to come back,” she laughs. It’s hard to blame them. The curriculum is shaped by academics from the nation’s leading institutions: Bard, Brown, Yale, and the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, among others. Not to mention classes and lectures lead by practitioners from organizations like the Council on Foreign Relations, the United Nations, The New York Times, and Newsweek International. For students who have a strong interest in international affairs, it’s hard to leave.

Part of it is that BGIA students aren’t just learning interesting, important things from leaders in international affairs—they are actively shaping the world that they’re learning about through full-time internships at the United Nations, CNN, the New York City Mayor’s Office, the Center for Constitutional Rights, Human Rights Watch, and PBS, among scores of other profoundly important organizations.

Last semester, Weiner interned with Global Kids—a non-profit organization that runs academic enrichment and leadership programs in New York City high schools and middle schools. “I helped design and implement international relations workshops for high school students, and facilitated a range of Global Kids programming,” he says. And this semester he’s interning with Academic Earth, a hub for open source education (video lectures) from several American universities. For Weiner, who hopes to one day become a social entrepreneur, the experience is invaluable. “Right now I'm doing a lot of content management on the site, researching potential content partners, and designing metrics to measure the organization's social impact and Social Return on Investment.”