After they graduate, most WA seniors find themselves headed off to college, getting a job, joining the military, or taking a gap year. Those who do go off to college usually go to a school within the U.S..

However, some find themselves going to school halfway around the world.

Senior Hannah Graham-Brown, will be heading to University of St. Andrews in Scotland.

Graham-Brown is one of eight students from the class of 2017 who will be going to school abroad. This is a substantial increase in students going to school abroad, compared to just one student from the class of 2016 and four from the class of 2015.

Graham-Brown says she was influenced by her dad to consider visiting schools in the U.K., including St. Andrews. She eventually found that she was a fan St. Andrews.

“My dad, he knew about [St. Andrews], and he suggested a couple of places to go and we visited [St. Andrews] too so that was really helpful just to see if it was the right fit, which it definitely was,” she said.

Also, going to school abroad is not unfamiliar to Graham-Brown, as her sister Alisa, is a student at Durham University in the U.K..

Graham Brown says that she did research on some schools, and one thing she found that she liked was the degree program at St. Andrews, a different type of program than those offered at U.S. schools.

“You can do three subjects that you’re mostly interested [in] and so you don’t really have to have a set idea of what [subject] you want to major in,” she said.

Furthermore, Graham-Brown also really liked the community makeup of St. Andrews. In fact, according to Graham-Brown, about 1/3 of the school is made up of American students,is looking forward to meeting different people at St. Andrews, as well as seeing the change in culture.

As for Scotland itself, Graham-Brown really likes both the country landscape and the people within Scotland.

“It’s really beautiful. It definitely has a rustic feel to it and the people there just seem [like they’re] polite and nice too. It’s just a nice change of scenery too,” she said. “I’ve visited Scotland before so I really just like the area, which is another reason why I chose to go there.”

Since St. Andrew’s offers three subjects to major in, Graham-Brown says she is looking into international relations, history, and possibly anthropology.

At WA, Graham-Brown says that her favorite classes at WA were probably history classes, as she took European History and Western Civilization this school year.

Outside of school at WA, Graham-Brown is a dancer, which she hopes to continue at St. Andrews.

Finally, Graham-Brown is really excited to start college at the University of St. Andrews. Although she admits she will miss the people and teachers at WA, she is looking forward to the different American community in Scotland.

“I’m really excited to go. […] I know a lot of people are going [to school] in America. I’m going to be one of the only people going across seas, but it’s nice to know that there’s a lot American community there too. […] it’s not like I’m going to be totally alone,” she said.