Over the summer, the Global Education Oregon program took a group of incoming freshmen to the London Centre in the U.K. The trip provided a unique opportunity for students to experience classes in a university setting before their arrival on the UO campus.
Students who go on this trip have a selective opportunity to get credits on their transcript before they begin their fall term. This opportunity is made possible through experiences that are specific to the UO London Centre. The classes students took while they were in London were centered around a broad theme of leadership. Featured lectures included topics that ranged from the environment to local policy.
“There was [a lecture] about climate change, one about fast fashion in a similar sense, one about politics in London at that time and leadership too,” Kelsey Eisland, a first-year who had the opportunity to attend the event this summer, said. Getting credits on one’s transcript before coming to campus is exciting, but it’s certainly not the only benefit this program provides. The freshmen attending this trip get the holistic experience of college independence before they even step foot in Eugene.
“Feeding yourself, having a roommate and adapting to a different culture,” Eisland said. “You get the experience of what it’s like to live on your own even for just a short amount of time.”
The benefits for students when they experience abroad programs can reach beyond an excursion or a tourism trip. Students who attend have the opportunity to experience the politics and culture first-hand in the country they visit.
On this particular trip, the group of first-years were in London when the death of Queen Elizabeth II was announced.
“It felt disconnected from me since I was just visiting, but you could really see that people were sad when it was announced,” Eisland said. Experiences such as these, solemn as they may be, provide an explicit insight into what the differences in culture are in a different nation.
“It felt very surreal when the queen died,” Lisa Garland, another student in the abroad program, said.
Another integral aspect of the pre-freshman abroad program was the socializing that students experienced. Having the opportunity to make connections before school starts makes the ease into a new environment less harsh.
“It helped me build my self-confidence, as it made me realize that I’m very capable of adjusting to a new environment,” Garland said.
When these students arrived in Eugene it felt as if they were returning to something familiar. They were able to leave the trip optimistically, ready to greet their friends on campus only weeks later.
“It wasn’t hard to say goodbye, because I knew I was coming two weeks later, and [my friends] would be here,” Eisland said.
A goal of the GEO programs is to foster a love of life-long learning. This was certainly an outcome of the pre-freshman abroad trip in London, leaving students eager for more.
“London’s a really big city, and I feel like I barely scratched the surface,” Eisland said. “I feel like I would definitely want to do another abroad trip, and most of the people on the trip agreed with that statement.”
