Possibly The Most Important Semester Of My Life

Studying a semester at Wroxton College cemented a lot of things for me: a broader world view on politics, culture, and language; a hopefully lifelong love of travel; the confidence to travel independently; and a totally new perspective on the American academic system. The Wroxton program was one of the reasons I decided to go to Fairleigh Dickinson in the US. Due to the nature of education at Wroxton, where an English staff teach traditionally English structured courses, it ended up being the most difficult and academically demanding - and rewarding - semester of my undergrad. Returning to the USA, the difference in how much I got out of my classes was unbelievable. I’d have studied four years at Wroxton if I could. The English system of lectures and smaller tutorial classes made me a much stronger student, and really challenged me to actually care about the material being studied and form my own opinions; more is expected of you as a student, but more is expected of professors as well, and the opportunity for one on one learning was much greater there than in classes I took stateside. Sometimes the professors might push you far out of your comfort zone; but widening your perspective to figure out how best to work together is part of the challenge. Academics are only one part of Wroxton, however - the other is the invaluable trip schedule that happens every weekend. In 15 weeks we saw more of the United Kingdom than most people who live there see in several years. Every Friday, Saturday and Sunday there were trips to museums, sports matches, famous estates and ruins, cities including London, Paris and Edinburgh, and so much more. Almost all of this travel was included in the cost of the program. Halfway through the semester students take a week long travel break to go explore on their own. Thinking about all of that, the balance between academic work and travel is a tough one, but it’s absolutely possible to make it work and come out the other side having had an amazing experience. The third and maybe most important part of Wroxton is the physical abbey and surrounding towns that students - and some faculty - live in. Wroxton abbey is a historical jewel. It’s not often you get to live in a building whose roots are older than the country you arrived from. Every room there is different, and all of them have been recently renovated or are undergoing renovation now. Living at Wroxton is living in a kind of fairy tale. When I say it was completely and utterly unreal, I mean it. The grounds of the abbey stretch for acres and acres into the forests surrounding, with landscaping and a lake left behind by previous tenents. Wroxton the village is as Cotswold as it can be, with a historic churchyard and cemetery, thatched roofs, and village pubs where you can get a hot meal and become a regular with kind and welcoming barkeepers. Due to the rite of passage laws in the UK, anyone can follow footpaths up and down the rolling hills through sheep pastures, over fences and past old monuments and broken structures. Nearby is the bustling city of Banbury, where shuttles take students and visitors every week to go grocery shopping and look around. Just writing this review, I’m realizing again how much of a gift it was to have been able to live there, and how much to this day I still want to return. Even though the United Kingdom is an English speaking country, it is just as foreign as anywhere else, and this program has more value than I can say in words. It will be difficult, it will be a huge challenge, and it will be worth every single minute, from the moment you step off the plane to the moment you return.