When Stacey Smith had to come to the United States to fulfill a requirement for her bachelor’s degree in American studies, the British student wanted to spend her semester abroad on a fairly large campus with an urban setting.

A new IUPUI program fit the bill, winning out over programs at universities in Michigan, Virginia and New Hampshire.

Under an exchange program with IUPUI, students pursing bachelor degrees in American studies at the University of Derby, located in Derbyshire, United Kingdom, spend their fourth semester studying on the Indianapolis campus. The exchange arrangement allows selected IUPUI juniors and seniors from various disciplines to spend a semester studying at Derby.

Smith, a native of Manchester, England, and two other Derby students, Simon MacKay and Louis Gandolfo, spent the spring semester at IUPUI. They are the first students to travel abroad under the new exchange program.

"The exchange will bring a new level of cultural enrichment to the American Studies Program and extend opportunities for overseas study to a wide range of students at IUPUI," said IUPUI English Professor Jonathan Eller, who initiated the program.

The American Studies Program, part of the IU School of Liberal Arts’ Institute for American Thought, is the IUPUI sponsoring unit of the exchange program.

Smith, whose father and maternal grandparents are natives of Jamaica, carried a full-semester load of four classes at IUPUI: American communities, African-American literature, African-American music and English literature.

Overall, her time at IUPUI was a great experience, particularly living in the International House, an IUPUI dorm designed to provide cross-cultural living and learning experiences for its residents who represent countries around the world, including the U.S.

"It really is like a little family. Everyone is so friendly," Smith said.

In addition to their academic pursuits at IUPUI, the Derby students also were required to complete a service-learning project.

Smith worked with the Indiana Center for Family, School and Community Partnerships on a research project to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court ruling that outlawed segregation of schools. She interviewed parents, students and an administrator at Crispus Attucks Middle School to learn how they believed the ruling impacted their lives. Results of her work were published in the center’s May newsletter, an eight-page English/Spanish publication with a circulation of 7,000.

She had read about the Brown v. Board of Education case in a textbook, but her research has "brought it to life," Smith said. "Talking to teachers, talking to kids, you get a firsthand experience of the effects of the ruling. It’s not just another thing you read in a textbook."

Her work at Attucks also made her consider working with children, perhaps as an adviser, as a possible career, Smith said.

Final selection of the first IUPUI students to go overseas under the program is currently underway, said exchange coordinator Marianne Wokeck, director of the American Studies Program.

The University of Derby is a campus of 9,000 students enrolled in liberal arts, creative and performing arts, design and technology, life science, business, law, and basic sciences programs. Derby is located in Derbyshire, United Kingdom, 12 miles from Nottingham and 115 miles–an hour by train–from London.

The fall semester at Derby runs from the third week in September to just before the Christmas holiday. Since Derby finals aren’t until January, the IUPUI exchange students will take finals by proxy.