By Michelle Tooker ’07,’10M

In one of those “small world” moments, students on Paris Preview met an Arcadia alum and senior atop the Eiffel Tower. The chance encounter wouldn’t have happened if it wasn’t for a little help from Arcadia’s Knight.

While Kara Wright ’14, Sara Lemley ’14, Jordyn Austin ’14, Elizabeth Wolf ’14 and Eileen O’Brien ’14—all students in the course “Paris and the Revolution of 1789″—were snapping photos on the second level of the Eiffel Tower, I took out the stuffed Knight to include in some pictures. Moments later, Alanna Mills ’11 and Angela Brachelli ’10 rounded the corner, exclaiming, “You guys are from Arcadia?”

Both Art History majors, Mills and Brachelli knew that Bonnie Hayes, Assistant Professor of Art and Design, was leading a group of students around Paris as part of the Preview course “City of Light,” but they didn’t know there was another group of Arcadia students in Paris, and they certainly didn’t expect to meet any at the top of the Eiffel Tower.

“As soon as we saw the Arcadia Knight, we were surprised,” says Brachelli. “We knew we had to give a shout-out to Arcadia from the Eiffel Tower!”

“We arrived in Paris at 6 a.m. and love it so far,” adds Mills. The two are traveling through Germany, France and Spain.

“We’ve been studying art for a while now and, at some point, you need to go out and see what you’ve studied,” explains Brachelli on the purpose of their trip. Within their first few hours in Paris, they visited the Louvre and were fascinated by the museum’s extensive collection.

“The Louvre is huge and impressive,” says Mills, who was thrilled to see some of the paintings she’s studied in her classes at Arcadia.

The first-year students were equally baffled and impressed by the chance encounter.

“If it weren’t for the Knight, we would’ve never known they were from Arcadia, too,” says Wolf.

It really is a small, small world.