Join the Journey

With destinations ranging from the Galapagos to Greece and the Amalfi to Dalmatian Coasts, the Alumni Journeys program offers William & Mary alumni, family and friends the chance to voyage to faraway places while staying close to the W&M community.

Local tour guides offer expertise on the destination’s culture and history. In 2025, six trips will also be hosted by W&M faculty, who will provide travelers with updates from the university and share insights based on their areas of study.

“W&M alumni and friends make for great travel partners,” says Ann Marie Stock, presidential liaison for strategic cultural partnerships and Chancellor Professor of Modern Languages & Literatures, who will accompany two trips in 2025. “They bring their interests and passions to our adventures, and I welcome every opportunity to connect and introduce these special people to one another.”

Although the trips are hosted by the W&M Alumni Association, travelers without William & Mary connections are also welcome. Stock will join the “Panama Potpourri” trip to Central America in March and the “Palazzi & Rivieras” trip through Italy, France and Spain in September. An expert on Cuban film and media, Stock has hosted many Alumni Journeys trips and other programs for lifelong learners. Senior Director of the Learning & Design (LEAD) Lab and Professor of Educational Technology Mark Hofer will also head to Europe, hosting the “Dutch Waterways” trip in April. This river cruise will transport travelers along the waterways of the Netherlands and Belgium. Hofer, also an expert on lifelong learning, builds connections between educators in museums, universities and K-12 settings across the country through the LEAD Lab.

Charles Bowery Jr. ’92 will host the “Grand Seine River & Normandy Passage” excursion in May. The executive director and chief of military history at the U.S. Army Center of Military History, Bowery is also the president of the Association of 1775, a W&M Alumni Association network focused on government and military service. This round-trip river voyage from Paris will bring guests to numerous landmarks, from the Notre-Dame Cathedral to the Normandy beaches.

The start of summer will find Roxane O. Adler Hickey M.Ed. ’02, Ed.D. ’23, director of the W&M Washington Center, hosting the June “Cruise Sicily, Malta & Amalfi Coast” trip. The weeklong cruise will feature stops at several UNESCO World Heritage sites on the path from the Amalfi Coast to Malta. As director of the Washington Center since 2019, Adler Hickey fosters partnerships both on campus and within the Washington, D.C., area, providing strategic direction for the Center and managing the advisory board. Dwight David Eisenhower II (grandson of President Dwight D. Eisenhower) will also accompany this trip to offer insights into the 1943 Allied landings in Sicily during World War II.

Dawn Edmiston Ed.D. ’20 will host the “Cruise the Dalmatian Coast” trip in August. Edmiston and the group will travel from Dubrovnik, Croatia, to Venice, Italy, discovering the legacies of the Roman, Greek, Byzantine, Slavic and Venetian civilizations along the Dalmatian Coast. The Clinical Professor of Marketing at the Raymond A. Mason School of Business, Edmiston is no stranger to international travel: She received a Fulbright Scholarship to Estonia in 2021 and, before her career in academia, worked for The Discovery Channel where she was responsible for 24 regional partnerships in 18 countries.

Edmiston says that the cruise to the Dalmatian Coast “combines my passion for education, global travel and connecting with our Tribe. It’s a true privilege to be a part of this special program, where the bonds of our alma mater grow stronger and our collective knowledge deepens as we travel.”

To learn more about Alumni Journeys and the 40 trips offered in 2025, visit wmalumni.com/travel.