Globetrotting alum combines studies and service

A  good question for UD graduate Bryan Townsend might be, “Where in the world haven’t you been?”

The University is known for its study abroad programs, but Townsend, who earned degrees in 2003 and 2004, has carried international learning to new heights. The Blue Hen globetrotter has visited and/or studied in such far-flung places as Antarctica, Argentina and Tanzania in East Africa (photography), Ireland (economics), China (Chinese language, philosophy and politics) and Western Europe (economics).

Thanks to a UD Alumni Enrichment Award in 2001, he also attended the United Nations Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg, South Africa, representing the Amigos of Costa Rica.

Alumni Enrichment Awards, created by the UD Alumni Association and made possible by proceeds from the UD-MBNA affinity credit card, are designed to give students opportunities to enrich their education. Individual students and registered student organizations may apply for the awards.

Currently enrolled as a student at Cambridge University in Britain, Townsend is studying Chinese politics and language and divides his time between England and China, where he studies at Beijing University. But he always returns to Delaware, where his family lives, and UD.

This year, Townsend is planning a different kind of journey. He is training to swim the English Channel from Dover to somewhere in France—“Wherever I land,” he says—to benefit Delaware’s Special Olympics. His goal is to raise enough money to help send four athletes to Shanghai to participate in the 2007 World Games.

Channel swimmers are given a “window” for the swim because of weather conditions, so he is scheduled to make the swim sometime between July 30 and Aug. 6.

“You don’t swim straight across the channel but take an S or Z path,” he says. “The swim can be 22 miles or more than 40 miles and takes roughly 15 hours.” The English Channel poses an additional challenge, as it is one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes with an average of 500 ships traversing it daily.

“If you see someone at the Delaware shore, swimming back and forth and back and forth in the ocean this summer, it could be me,” Townsend says. During the winter, he already was in training at the Delaware Swim and Fitness pool, coached by another English Channel swimmer, Ray Peden, a Delaware State Police sergeant. Townsend will hit the open water in rivers, bays and the ocean as it grows warmer. He then plans to return to England and train in the Dover harbor before the actual swim.

Townsend has been active in Special Olympics for a number of years, helping with softball, marching in the band for the Blue & Gold football games and teaming up with a Special Olympics “buddy.” He also participated in a swim in Maine to benefit Maine Handicapped Skiing.

In China, in addition to his studies at Beijing University, he has been a volunteer at the Peizhi School for intellectually challenged children, teaching English and basketball to 14- to 18-year-olds. He’s also worked on school fund-raising activities, a relatively new concept in China, he says. Those fund-raising activities have included organizing a 5-kilometer run and compiling corporate profiles on international companies that are located there to ask for support for the school.

“I love China, its people and its culture,” Townsend says. His first visit as a UD student was to Xiamen, a city in southeast China across from Taiwan.

His home base remains the University of Delaware, which helped Townsend reach his goals and made his travels possible. A Dean’s Scholar in the Honors Program, a Blue Hen Ambassador and a member of Alpha Lambda Delta honor and service society, Townsend is a double alumnus, graduating in 2003 with bachelor’s and master’s degrees in economics and again in 2004 with a bachelor’s degree in philosophy and biology. He also served as a recent graduate member of UD’s Board of Trustees.

“The University of Delaware is an amazing place,” he says. “I have gotten so much support and exceptional advisement. So many people have been instrumental in helping me.”

UD also is a family affair. His father and his mother, Charles (Jeff) and Judi Schurgard Townsend, his older brother, Eric, and sister-in-law, Suzanne Ryder Townsend, all are alums, and his two younger brothers, Brett and Brandon Townsend, are scheduled to graduate this May. 

What’s next? “Law school,” Townsend says. He is weighing his options among Yale, Harvard and the University of Michigan.

— Sue Moncure