Bailey Williams was convinced since the start of high school that she would find a chance to study abroad. Despite her advisor telling her it would be nearly impossible to get an entire semester of credits for her major approved, she made it happen.
The J-school at UNL requires students to have a combination of minors and concentrations outside of their majors. When Bailey realized she still needed quite a few more credits to complete her English minor, she knew the University of Oxford would be the perfect place to get those credits out of the way and finally spend a semester abroad.
While at Oxford, Bailey studied in Hertford College, one of the 38 colleges spread across the university. Each college has its own housing, dining hall, classrooms, library, extracurricular activities, and even a college bar. The Oxford school year is divided into 8-week terms, so Bailey started there during September Seminar, a four week mini-term specifically for study abroad students, then stayed through Michaelmas Term.
Hertford College
Rather than attending tons of classes throughout the week, students meet with tutors (professors) in their specific subjects. Bailey met with her Shakespeare tutor once a week and with her creative writing tutor every other week. Although this sounds like an easy class schedule, she still spent a great deal of every weekday working on the assignments she got from her tutor, as she typically had a 2,000+ word essay due at each tutorial.
Because there aren’t actual classes at Oxford, though, it’s a bit harder to meet people. Oxford assigned her a “family” at the start of the term, so she had an Oxford mom, dad, brother and sister who were all students at her college. She also joined the Hertford College rowing team, and made a point to eat at the dining hall and attend bops (themed socials, I think?) at the college bar as often as possible with two of the other American students.
With her Oxford brother and sister!
“I honestly feel like I lived life to its fullest while I was abroad,” she said. “It’s probably the best work/life/study balance I’ve ever had and I miss it all the time. Travel hard, sleep later was my motto.”
She used a lot of her free time on weekends to travel around Europe. Her favorite destination was Prague, simply because they had no plans one night there and just wandered around until they found things to do. After some mulled wine, a trdelnik, live music in a bar and getting lost on public transit, Bailey can’t wait to go back.
Another highlight of the trip was spontaneously going to London for a One Direction concert. Totally worth it.
All in all, this experience gave Bailey a chance to push herself out of her comfort zone, work hard to meet new people and figure out how to make the most of her time.
“I was exposed to so many new ideas, opinions and customs and I wouldn’t change a thing. I can’t express how essential studying abroad is for personal growth. You’ll learn independence, you’ll become more empathetic (hopefully), you’ll learn how to bridge cultural gaps and form new friendships.”
JRR Tolkien and C.S. Lewis used to hang out here!!!!