Falmouth University hosts International Summer School with Florida's Ringling College
02 August 2023
Falmouth University has hosted its first International Summer School with students from Florida’s Ringling College. The fully immersive experience gives students from across the globe a flavour of life on campus here in Cornwall.
Along with Ringling’s Professor of Environmental Studies, Tim Rumage, seven students were the first cohort to take part in the Summer School. Hailing from Ringling College in Sarasota, Florida, they joined Falmouth Student Ambassadors on a three-week programme visiting all the top sights in Cornwall and attending workshops in Writing, Game Design, Sustainable Tourism, Sustainable Product Design, Film and Drawing.
The programme follows an earlier exchange where Falmouth students attended Ringling College in the summer of 2022, experiencing life in the ‘Sunshine State’, where Ringling is known as a leading art and design college. Some of the students who visited Florida were subsequently hired as Summer School Assistants to help international staff coordinate the 2023 programme in Falmouth.
Ringling has about 1700 undergraduate students and currently offers 13 degree programs. The College is the only institution in Florida dedicated exclusively to teaching art and design and their Computer Animation, Motion Design and Game Art programmes are ranked among the best in the US.
Falmouth has now established a partnership with the college for regular study exchanges and Ringling is set to send a faculty member from their Film School to visit Falmouth’s leading School of Film & Television this summer.
I came here with an open mind and look what happened - I made a little family. We shared wonderful moments together, it was all amazing.
Partnership Manager Alex Mesterton-Gibbons accompanied the school cohort throughout the summer school. She said: “This summer school has truly demonstrated the appetite for summer programmes, with many of the students demonstrating that they’d love to return with their families even also explore postgraduate study paths here in Falmouth.
“In three weeks, students can really adopt to another campus culture. They all really enjoyed St Michael’s Mount and the Eden Project. They also visited the Minack, Tate St Ives and Truro Cathedral as part of their creative workshops. Ringling’s students had a fabulous time, and I know this will be a highlight of their university experience.”
Wilderley (Will) Mauricette was born in Hinche, Haiti but has been living in Florida since he started elementary school. An aspiring film director, he joined Film BA(Hons) course leader Dr Laura Canning for a film workshop and screening of the BAFTA Award-winning film BAIT by Distinguished Professor of Film Mark Jenkin. He said: “You guys hold a lot of weight in the film industry. We watched the film BAIT, which won a BAFTA – it was amazing and different. I think this is why travel. The world is a big place and everybody has their different cultures and different ways of doing things. The way Americans make film is very different to European films. There's a big difference in the arts, but filmmaking brings the world together."
Will also spoke of the support and encouragement he received during the summer school, adding: “I came here with an open mind and look what happened - I made a little family. We shared wonderful moments together, it was all amazing, I felt things I haven't felt before...meeting people...having a conversation. Even the wonderful lady who works down at the café - she's sunshine, just lovely! Everybody was so nice, so welcoming. You guys are very motivational and supportive. To anybody who gets this chance and opportunity...don't even hesitate. Just come here! I will never forget it.”
“It's a very creative place, it's so clear that the students here and the faculty and the staff are really focused on where the world is going. I would definitely recommend that people come here to study...”
Tim Rumage has been a Professor at Ringling for thirty years. Asked about his experience of the summer school, he said: “It's amazing. It really is. Every single faculty member we talked to, and the students, talked about the role of art and changing people's minds, making them aware and helping them see differently, feel differently, interact differently. That's what this campus does, what professors did, and then just the amount of nature that you have on this campus. The number of birds' nests we found and all the trees and wildflowers, the gardens...it's just so rich and diverse...”
Isabella Erhamza is originally from New Jersey, but studies Business at Ringling. Speaking of her first impressions of Falmouth University, she added: “It's a very creative place, it's so clear that the students here and the faculty and the staff are really focused on where the world is going. I would definitely recommend that people come here to study...”
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