Beyond the Classroom
History majors apply their academic interests to a wide range of engaging activities outside the classroom. You can earn credit and satisfy requirements through many of these experiences.
You can earn credit for the history major and minor by collaborating with faculty-mentors on individual research projects. Students may work closely with faculty engaged in researching articles, writing books, and preparing digital humanities projects and museum exhibitions.
Students also may work with their mentors on student-centered work. Our student-researchers have earned prestigious grants and fellowships for funded travel to the National Archives, Library of Congress and collections from London to Sydney to Taiwan. Our student-researchers also present their prize-winning work at conferences and have been published in journals.
You can earn credit and gain practical work experience with internships. Our practicum program allows students to hold positions with our partners at public and private historical agencies, museums, libraries, archives, historical sites, and archeological digs.
Our students apply what they learn at the Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation, Mariners' Museum, Virginia War Museum, Colonial Williamsburg, Monticello, Library of Congress, Smithsonian Institution, Eisenhower Memorial, U.S. State Department, Council on Foreign Relations, National Museum of the Marine Corps and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, among many others.
The world is your classroom! You can earn credit for the history major and minor, as well as toward university requirements, by studying abroad with history faculty. Destinations have included Britain, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Austria, Czech Republic, Morocco and China.
Students study different cultures and people by visiting important cities, key historical sites and major museums. Our short-term programs run most summers, often during May term, and a history-specific study abroad scholarship is available.
For history majors interested in a long-term study abroad experience, Christopher Newport has a "3+1+1" program with the University of Glasgow, one of the oldest and most prestigious universities in the world.
Under the agreement, you can earn a bachelor's degree in history by completing the majority of required history classes in your first three years at Christopher Newport before going abroad to Scotland to complete the major during your senior year. You then return to Glasgow to complete a one-year master's program that aligns with your undergraduate major.
Our students reach out to the community with engaging service-learning experiences like the Hampton Roads Oral History Project, which seeks to record and archive the memories of people of the Civil Rights era.
The University History Society Club and Phi Alpha Theta international history honor society foster camaraderie and recognize student achievement. We plan trips to historical sites and museums, and host movie nights and guest speakers. Students also regularly contribute to The Cupola and other online history journals.