Last semester Professor Russell Martin from Westminster College, New Wilmington Pennsylvania USA spent a semester at Richmond American University London with his students.
This marked Professor Martin’s third visit to Richmond University. Sharing the same accreditation institution as Westminster College, Richmond proved to be an excellent destination for both him and his students, offering a great environment for learning and exploration.
“Everyone at Richmond is very friendly. The university has good and fair professors who genuinely care about their students, in the same way they do at Westminster,” Russell tells us. “I have made great friends during my time at Richmond, while the students got to experiment with new classes and gain an experience that goes beyond theory.”
With family ties to Eastern Europe, Professor Martin grew up with a strong sense of the importance of history, which led him to become a historian specializing in the Russian Empire. He encourages his students to take an interest in history as a necessary tool in any field. With many years of teaching experience and various publications to his name — including two new articles written during this most recent visit — he recognises the importance of knowing our past in order to understand the present.
At Richmond, Professor Martin was enthusiastic about showing his students the practical side of his subject. London, as it happens, is the perfect place for this, offering a rich historic legacy and a diverse cultural itinerary. History is often mischaracterised as just facts, names, and dates, but it is so much more, says Professor Martin. “It’s taught wrong, it’s too serious.” This is why coming to London was a great opportunity to emphasise the other facets of history that we often forget. While history may not always lead directly to a specific career, it is an essential minor which, when taken within a Liberal Arts curriculum, can add invaluable knowledge and skills to any professional path.
Professor Martin advocates for history to be taken up by future accountants, marketers, and data analysts alike. Learning history allows students to think critically and analyse different meanings and perspectives behind every subject and event. A Liberal Arts curriculum taught at Richmond enables students to take a variety of classes alongside their majors, while exploring the global environment of London.
Professor Martin and his students had an active semester at Richmond, packed with field trips to some of the city’s most impressive landmarks. Students had the opportunity to step inside the Tower of London, marvel at artefacts in the British Museum, and explore the impressive collections at the Wallace Collection, the Imperial War Museum, and the Churchill War Rooms. They also visited Bletchley Park and took part in a church crawl across no fewer than eight different churches around the city. Through this semester abroad, students from Westminster College experienced the wonders of British history first-hand.
Professor Martin encourages students to engage with their study materials in the same way they engage with London itself. “Being in London is an out-of-the-box experience. It challenges you to think differently, get inspired by the city’s movement, its multiculturalism, its variety of languages and food, and bring these fresh ideas into whatever you are studying.”
Having made lifelong connections and strengthened Richmond’s relationship with Westminster College, Professor Martin is confident that many collaborations lie ahead. He looks forward to inspiring even more students to explore the fantastic opportunity of experiencing a semester abroad.
