Desktop doodles chronicle 40-year history of study abroad program in Scotland
Desktop doodles chronicle 40-year history of study abroad program in Scotland
UW-River Falls plans reunion celebrations for alumni
July 1, 2026 — “Your life will change here if you let it” is carved into a battered, stained, antique wooden desktop. The message is one of many left by college students studying abroad in Dalkeith, Scotland over the last 40 years. Many of those former students will have a chance to reconnect this year as the Experience Scotland program, originally titled Wisconsin in Scotland, celebrates its 40th anniversary.
Launched in 1986 by a consortium including the University of Wisconsin-River Falls, UW-Eau Claire, UW-La Crosse and UW-Stout, the Experience Scotland program was housed in Dalkeith Palace until the COVID-19 pandemic put it on pause in 2020. It relaunched in 2022 in a new location, Newbattle Abbey. The program is currently managed by UWRF and includes partner schools UW-Parkside, UW-Superior, UW-Whitewater and five other schools in Minnesota, Michigan, California and Kentucky, though students from any U.S. institution of higher education can participate.
When the program relocated, Patty Watters, who was the on-site resident director of operations from 2007 to 2021, thought that the desktops should be preserved.
“Every desk was covered in graffiti from students from the beginning of the program,” Watters said. “I always felt like students tried to kind of leave a piece of themselves there, whether it was their name or a little bit of a picture. And it just felt like this has to be taken care of in some way.”
Watters removed the desktops and shipped them to UWRF, where they will be auctioned off online to help support the program.
Not all the doodles are intended to be inspirational. There are drawings, favorite music artists from the Beatles to the Beastie Boys, Rick Astley and Pearl Jam, musings about the Loch Ness Monster and quotes from the “Harry Potter” series. A few students sound a little homesick while others never want to leave. More than a few comments are a little salty.
Katie Verkuilen, who went to Dalkeith in 2015, kept it simple with her initials and the year she attended. It took her a while to work up the courage to leave her mark.
“I’m very much a rule-follower, so it took me a while to say, ‘Okay, I’m going to do it,’” Verkuilen said. “But the desks were definitely graffiti central. It was cool to see how people made their mark. To see their talents and what people felt like they wanted to be remembered by.”
Verkuilen said she will never forget her experience in Scotland.
“It sounds so cliche to say my study abroad trip was life changing, but it really did change my life," she said. “I made some of my absolute best friends on that trip. We’re still in contact 10 plus years on.”
Turner Berg was a broadcast journalism major from UWEC who attended in 1997 and met his future wife, Amy.
“The experience had a profound impact on me as a person,” Berg said. “I had a wonderful host ‘Mum,’ traveled extensively and met a ton of amazing people. It really did exceed all of my expectations.”
And Berg’s Dalkeith doodle?
“I wrote, ‘Turner 1997,’ and I, of course, sincerely apologize for the vandalism,” Berg said.
Wes Chapin, a UWRF political science professor and past director of international education and interim Provost, traveled to Dalkeith as a UWRF student the very first year of the program and has returned multiple times as a faculty member. He said that immersing themselves in another culture and learning subjects out in the field is an invigorating experience for students.
“We had been studying Scottish history, especially the long and turbulent conflicts with England. Later, some of us were able to visit the site of one of its most significant moments, the Battle of Culloden, near Inverness,” Chapin said. “There’s a museum at the battlefield, and you can walk the very ground where the events unfolded. Experiencing it in person brought the history to life in a way that simply isn’t possible when you’re learning about it only in the classroom.”
Kelsey McLean attended as a UWRF student in 2006 and has worked for the Experience Scotland program ever since, first as a student ambassador, then assistant director and now as international programs manager. McLean said the doodling tradition continues at Newbattle Abbey, just not on the desktops.
“Each term has a canvas that they get to decorate and leave their mark,” McLean said. “It’s amazing. Some students are impressively artistic.”
There are two reunion events planned to mark the 40th anniversary of Experience Scotland. The first will happen July 18 at the Minnesota Scottish Fair & Highland Games, which is a frequent gathering place for many alums. Those interested can purchase tickets online at events.handbid.com/lp/scotland-reunion-2026. That will also be the site to bid on desktops when the auction goes live. That will happen in advance of the reunion. Another reunion will be held in Dalkeith, Scotland, June 19, 2027.
Photographs of the desktops can be viewed on the UWRF Archives page at atom.uwrf.edu/index.php/dalkeith-desktops.
Photo 1: Doodles made by college students studying abroad in Scotland adorn desktops used at Dalkeith Palace from 1986 to 2020. The desktops have been shipped to UW-River Falls where they will be auctioned off to support the Experience Scotland program, now housed at Newbattle Abbey, which is celebrating its 40th anniversary.
Photo 2: UW-River Falls alum Katie Verkuilen poses for a photo in 2015 in front of Dalkeith Palace. Verkuilen and other Experience Scotland alums will gather for 40th anniversary reunion events in Minnesota and Dalkeith, Scotland, this July and next June.