{"id":122,"date":"2004-06-07T13:03:28","date_gmt":"2004-06-07T17:03:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.hsc.edu\/international\/?p=122"},"modified":"2021-01-11T19:57:57","modified_gmt":"2021-01-11T19:57:57","slug":"virginia-program-at-oxford-2005","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.hsc.edu\/international\/2004\/06\/07\/virginia-program-at-oxford-2005\/","title":{"rendered":"Virginia Program at Oxford 2005"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Corey Van Vlymen ’08
\nphotographs by: Morgan Roach, Sweet Briar College, class of ’07<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>This summer, three other students from Hampden-Sydney and I participated in the Virginia Program at Oxford University in England.\u00a0 Stephen English, Peter Gilman, Jonathan Miyashiro, and I traveled to England in June for the six-week study abroad program. There, we were joined by students from five other Virginia colleges: Mary Baldwin, Roanoke, Sweet Briar, Virginia Military Institute, and Washington & Lee.\u00a0 The program is organized by a team of advisers (one from each of the participating colleges) and is one of the longest established American programs held at St. Anne’s College of Oxford University<\/a> each year.\u00a0 It was a chance to get to know students from other Virginia colleges as well as a chance to become familiar with another way of learning.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The curriculum is made up of a class on 16th and 17th Century literature and a history class which covers the Tudor and Stuart periods in Britain, both taught by Oxford University professors or professors from other institutions within the United Kingdom.\u00a0 The classes are taught using the Oxford tutor system.\u00a0 Four days each week students were lectured by world-renowned scholars of British history and literature.\u00a0 Topics included Shakespeare, the Parliaments of the 16th and 17th Century, the Tudor and Stuart monarchs, and others.\u00a0 We focused on a different work of literature and a different moment in history each week, with the lectures revolving around that \"\"<\/a>topic. At the end of each week, we wrote a short essay for our tutorial lessons.\u00a0 Though the lectures provided some basis for our essays, each week we were required to read a list of books and excerpts provided to us by our two tutors.\u00a0 Some weeks, the list would be as heavy as six books or more.\u00a0 Through our reading and the lectures, we were expected to prepare the essay and our arguments for the tutorial session.\u00a0 Each session was either two-to-one or three-to-one student to faculty ratio.\u00a0 The tutorials proved to be the most intense arenas for academic conversation of which I have been a part.\u00a0 All in all, the academic environment proved to be an experience to remember.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Academics aside, though, the recreational part of the trip was no bore either.\u00a0 The directors of the program had set up activities that would please even the hardest to please Anglophile.\u00a0 Kicking off the program in our first week was a party featuring Pimm?s, possibly the most famous Brit-beverage. Although Pimm?s quickly became several students? new best friend, I enjoyed the cricket and punting gatherings, myself.\u00a0 The illustrious Dr. Ken Fincham, our British director, set up croquet parties, cricket games, and punting outings as well as private tours of the colleges of Oxford.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In the middle of the six-week program, we were granted temporary asylum from the stress of class for four days.\u00a0 Most of us took the opportunity to gallivant across Europe to places like Amsterdam, Sweden, Italy, or Wales.\u00a0 Some of us, however, couldn’t resist the opportunity to stay behind in Oxford and to spend the weekend buried under a stack of books at the famous Bodleian Library on campus.\u00a0 At the end of the program, the directors closed the six weeks with a bang at the finest final party ever to grace the Virginia Program at Oxford.\u00a0 Complete with haggis, fine wines, and ascots, the party was the last goodbye, with most of us flying out the next morning.\u00a0<\/p>\n

I, however, was fortunate enough to have almost a whole week to stay in Oxford after the end of the program. During that week, I was introduced to the world of hostels, but that’s another story.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Corey Van Vlymen ’08 photographs by: Morgan Roach, Sweet Briar College, class of ’07 This summer, three other students from Hampden-Sydney and I participated in the Virginia Program at Oxford University in England.\u00a0 Stephen English, Peter Gilman, Jonathan Miyashiro, and I traveled to England in June for the six-week study abroad program. There, we were joined by students from five other Virginia colleges: Mary Baldwin, Roanoke, Sweet Briar, Virginia Military Institute, and Washington & Lee.\u00a0 The program is organized by a team of advisers (one from each of the participating colleges) and is one of the longest established American […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[24,74],"class_list":["post-122","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-summer","tag-england","tag-van-vlymen"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.hsc.edu\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.hsc.edu\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.hsc.edu\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.hsc.edu\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.hsc.edu\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=122"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.hsc.edu\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2748,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.hsc.edu\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122\/revisions\/2748"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.hsc.edu\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=122"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.hsc.edu\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=122"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.hsc.edu\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=122"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}