Tailor-made advising
Your Weinberg adviser will get to know you, point out opportunities for growth and success, and help you advance toward your goals.
Students receive the kind of personal attention one would expect at a smaller school, while taking advantage of the benefits of a research university -– the chance to do research with a professor, work in a lab, or obtain an internship in Chicago with connections made through Northwestern.
Embrace opportunities
Student profile: Sarah Smierciak
Hometown: Lemont, IL
Major: History
What's Next: Pursuing Middle East studies at Oxford through a Rhodes Scholarship
What has surprised you? Sarah came to Northwestern expecting to study the sciences, but Carl Petry’s class on modern Middle Eastern history propelled her in a new direction. “The class exposed me to a wider perspective and understanding that the world is so much bigger than anything you imagine in your everyday life. You could never learn enough about that area of the world; it is so complex and so rich in history and culture.”
How Weinberg supported her goals. Now a history major, Sarah has become fluent in Arabic thanks to summers in Egypt made possible through Northwestern language immersion grants. A Weinberg undergraduate research grant supported her research for a thesis on Naguib Mahfouz, the first writer in Arabic to win the Nobel Prize in Literature. And she meets on campus weekly with fellow students and professors to discuss and debate Middle East politics through a group she founded: the Middle East and Central Asia Report.
What does the future hold? “I’ve always been really interested in a career in diplomacy. If there was a place in which I could use my Arabic to promote a constructive dialogue, then that would be the ideal route for me.”
