A Summer at Oxford
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Over the summer of 2023, Kate Vaccaro took part in an intensive 4-week program at Oxford University, one of the most prestigious universities in the world.
Going to Oxford had always been one of Kate’s dreams. “As a person who loves academics, the richness of learning there has always been appealing,” she said.
While there, Kate took part in two courses: “C.S. Lewis and the Classics” and “J.R.R. Tolkien: Oxford’s Creator of Other Worlds.” She also had weekly lectures about British history and culture that ended with exploratory field trips.
The intellectual vigor of the courses lived up to Kate’s hopes. For each course, the students would write essays. After the essay was written, the students met with their professors one-on-one for an hour to discuss the essay. A large part of the final grade was based on that discussion, and how well one could defend the position in their essay.
“It was intimidating,” Kate said, “[But] I found it to be the most impactful part of my education there. The discussion allowed for narrower focuses on topics we had discussed in class and was centered around something that I had already found interesting enough to write two thousand words about.”
She also really appreciated how intentional the professors were about the meetings. “They would ask intentional questions about the claims I had made and force me to elaborate on parts that were underdeveloped. It also gave me new ways of viewing what I had written and different avenues into approaching the topic.”
The Honors program helped connect Kate to this study abroad summer opportunity. She said it also helped prepare her the style of learning that Oxford practices, especially in the British culture and history lectures.
Participating in this trip helped Kate to expand her worldview by immersing her in British culture and allowing her to spend time with people from all over the United States. “This helped me to grow my perspective of the world and reminded me that I have only been exposed to a small amount of it.”
“Getting to be in the place allowed for new perspectives about the events that had taken place there and the people who were there hundreds or thousands of years ago,” she said.
Beyond this, Kate also felt that Oxford improved her academic skills. “Oxford gave me more strategies for research and taught me how to ask questions that were intentional and allowed for deeper discussions.”
Kate took part in this study abroad summer through the CCCU’s Scholarship and Christianity in Oxford program. This program takes students from partner Christian colleges and universities across the United States and brings them together to study and learn from each other.
Although the program was only four weeks long, Kate felt as if it was a perfect amount of time to get connected to the city of Oxford. Although the CCCU has a semester long program option, Kate felt that long of a trip might be a “little overwhelming.” A summer program allowed her to experience the intellectual vibrancy of the program and explore the city, while not taking away from her extracurricular experiences at Whitworth.
Kate, ‘25, is majoring in English Literature with an editing & publishing and theology minor. After she graduates, she hopes to attend graduate school and become a book editor. She is also considering getting a Ph.D. and eventually becoming a professor.