"It was, statistically, the coldest night of the year," she recalled.
And at midnight, in white-out conditions, her car and her cell phone service failed. She and her cat shared body heat for an hour and a half as they waited for the next "safe" car to arrive and assist... while they hid from a few "frightening" ones.
Schmitz ultimately made it to her destination: Montreal, Canada, a vibrant city home to McGill University where she is based as a Canada - U.S. Fulbright scholar after being selected as one of a dozen from nearly 100 finalists nationally. The travel horror was a mere bump in the road for Schmitz, a native New Englander who has learned to cope with the trials of Canadian winters like un-freezing door locks by using boiling water or a lighter to melt the ice.
"Yes", she laughed, "like my life, its proven a balance of unusual challenge and opportunity" in an interview last Friday. In the past three months Schmitz has traveled the world as part of her Fulbright research, bouncing from Toronto, Denver, Prague, Winnipeg, Ottawa, Washington and Paris, just to name a few places.
The Fulbright program is an exchange of scholars with participants from 140 countries across the world who have the opportunity to delve into the political, economic, educational and cultural institutions of other nations. The program was born at the end of World War II from J. William Fulbright's world vision that war can be avoided with greater empathy and understanding. Participants are chosen for their unusual leadership potential during a rigorous selection process.
"The concept was revolutionary, but timeless. It is only through intercultural understanding that we may ever effectively manage the persistent potential for war and any other number of socially destructive dynamics," Schmitz said.
The program provides living expenses for scholars as well as funding for travel and supplies.
Schmitz, who is fluent in French, is researching international trade and working with the Canadian government on a "provincial initiative" to reduce regulatory barriers and increase trade opportunities with other nations. She views trade as a means toward intercultural understanding and conflict avoidance.
"The Canadian provinces have more autonomy than U.S. states have," she explained. As such she's hoping her work will "help facilitate trade among the provinces. There is much here to be learned from the paradigm European Union example of geopolitical integration regarding what some view as "Canadian dis-integration" along North/South fault lines with US states which threaten the larger and truly unique Canadian culture."
Schmitz is in the process of coordinating additional research in Washington, D.C. with the help of Senator Jack Reed, himself a Matunuck native.
After being named a Frank Fund Fellow and an Ashburn Institute award winner, Schmitz visited Prague in March to make a presentation of some of her research to the Czech Republic Parliament.
Schmitz presented some of her work from a 40-page paper, which will become a book chapter this fall.
"The big challenge is to scrunch it into 12 pages by October," Schmitz said.
She will also present her work to the Canadian Political Science Association in Winnipeg this summer, and to other academic, government, and business organizations throughout the year.
Schmitz pursued the "once in a lifetime" opportunity with zeal in October 2002 and is the only independent scholar from Rhode Island. She credits her parents, Richard and Jacqueline Schmitz, for providing the inspiration and support she needed to get involved in the Fulbright program.
"They're an inspiration in how they choose to live their lives and thereby realize anyone's ideals of grace in the face of some extraordinary challenges," she said.
Richard and Jacqueline Schmitz live on Blackberry Hill, in Matunuck, the neighborhood where Schmitz spent the summers of her youth.
"I've always considered South Kingstown my home," she said. "Wherever we were living, this was always the base."
Born in Holden, Massachusetts, she is the youngest of four children.
This week Schmitz is participating in an upcoming national-political-party convention. A delegate from Connecticut - where she used to live and work as an independent management consultant - Schmitz will be speaking and interviewed by Hartford press. The opportunity is a brief reprieve from her hectic schedule and one she is excited about to network and discuss policy with other like-minded individuals.
Prior to her Fulbright endeavors, Schmitz worked as a management consultant in Hartford, Connecticut. She earned a master's degree in public policy on scholarship at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government and has also completed coursework at Harvard Business School, Harvard Law School, Tufts' Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, and L'Ecole Nationale d'Administration in Paris.
Schmitz's list of academic accomplishments is exhaustive and includes a rare top tier Harvard University merit scholarship, a fellowship from Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies in Italy, an A.P. Giannini scholarship, and Phi Beta Kappa and Pi Sigma Alpha honors.
When she is not performing her Fulbright duties, Schmitz serves as a policy director for Canada25, a non-profit youth-oriented francophone international public policy forum, and she also hits the slopes. An amateur skier, she ranks number one out 100 giant slalom skiers in the country for her age and gender bracket. Schmitz learned the sport from her competitive-athlete father on ski-swap remanufactured boards and hand-me-down jackets from her brothers with "duct-taped repairs".
An avid runner, it wasn't until Schmitz tore the ligaments in her ankle four years ago that she turned to skiing as a recreational outlet full-time.
The sport was challenging after her injury - a short race that lasts 20 seconds for an average skier took Schmitz twice as long to complete - but she continued to train and improved. For Schmitz, skiing is analogous to life.
"I truly believe that if we try hard enough, we can achieve most, if not all, of our ambitions. It's just a matter of motivation and perseverance," she said. In giant slalom skiing, "The more fully you commit yourself to a turn, the faster you complete the inevitable transition, the more aggressively you face it all, the less likely you are to injure yourself. If you just hold fast against the myriad centripital forces which will otherwise throw you off your course and/or weigh you down with inertia, you'll always derive energy from the change in direction and "arrive" that much faster and more efficiently. As in life, it may seem counterintuitive, but if you take a risk and fully commit - welcoming challenge - you're not only safer, but you're ultimately rewarded with the greatest propensity for success. My mother always used to say that 'change is the only constant' - you'll always find twist and turns in the road, but the better you harmonize yourself to that inevitability, the better you'll determine where you'll conclude your path and on what terms."
"...Of course, avoiding crashes at 60 miles an hour with nothing between you and ice but lycra, also helps."
When her term as a Fulbright scholar comes to a close, Schmitz hopes her schedule will settle down.
"When this chapter's concluded, I'm looking forward to NOT traveling!" she said.
But she won't settle for long. While Schmitz is not sure what shape her future will take, she wants to continue to have an impact on government, whether that means continued study or possibly running for office one day.
"When you're blessed with this type of opportunity, your charged with the responsibility to procure for society some appropriate return on its investment."
"You know, ordering well at restaurants may not, alone, do justice to the great Senator's aspirations of human harmony!", she added with a smile.