As much as Amy Arundale valued the cultural and social benefits of her junior year in Scotland, it was always soccer that was at the top of her mind. In fact, it was a running joke among her friends that her penchant for all things soccer made her a rather distracted companion at pubs, where televised matches were extremely diverting.
The senior biology major will be getting all the soccer she can stand during the 2007-2008 academic year while she lives and works at England's Chigwell School as a William Penn Fellow. The Fellowship, named for Chigwell's most famous alumnus, facilitates understanding between the U.S. and Great Britain through shared intellectual and cultural experiences and is offered annually to graduating seniors at both Haverford and Swarthmore.
At Chigwell, Arundale will team teach upper-level biology courses, coach the women's soccer team, and serve as a“dorm parent” one night a week for the 35 boarders, supervising their study halls and accompanying them on trips to nearby London. She will live in an on-site apartment and plans to spend her three-day weekends (she'll have Mondays off) traveling in Europe. She'll be able to see her family in Fairbanks, Alaska at Christmas.
Arundale is excited to have a year in which to ponder her future; she's vacillating between pursuing a doctorate in physical therapy or a graduate assistantship in coaching, which would provide her with a master's in education. She's also thrilled to return to the U.K., for which she says she's had a“soft spot in my heart” since her childhood years spent in Cambridge during her father's sabbaticals (he's a professor of communication at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks).“I love being surrounded by all of that history, churches from the 12th century and castles that have been there forever,” she says.
And of course, the opportunity to once again immerse herself in a soccer culture is the icing on the cake for the former ‘Ford wide midfielder.“I'm looking forward to strengthening the women's soccer team,” she says. The program started by this year's fellow, Cathy Carbonaro ‘06, is currently comprised of mostly younger girls; however, Arundale hopes to get more older girls interested and establish a solid program.
