This summer, I flew across “the pond” to London, England by myself. Well, not exactly by myself. I traveled over the Atlantic with 40 other high school kids.
The program I attended this summer was ASA (Academic Study Associates) Oxford, which is a well-known program with offerings at university campuses in the United States and in countries like France, Italy, and Spain.
My program was four weeks long, and there were about 150 kids total from all over the world. No matter where you chose to go in ASA’s summer programs, you had to pick a major and a minor course. At Oxford, I took marketing and advertisement as my major and psychology of the criminal mind as my minor.
My marketing class was especially interesting, because my classroom was so diverse; there were kids from Saudi Arabia, India, Nicaragua, Japan, and Turkey, just to name a few. I didn’t expect the other kids to be so relatable, but I found that a lot of things overlap, especially with globalized brands. One girl from L.A. said that the target audience for Abercrombie & Fitch is middle school kids, and a guy from Nicaragua said it was the same in his country. Also, the entire class questioned why there wasn’t a Chipotle in Oxford. I was amused how kids from completely different parts of the world were all raving about the same Mexican food chain.
In psychology, there were a lot more American students. We studied the histories of fingerprinting, DNA sampling, and the lie detector as well as famous criminologists and case studies. A lot of the class consisted of watching movies and analyzing them. Most days, we watched episodes of the new Sherlock Holmes series on HBO starring Benedict Cumberbatch.
When we were not in class, we had tons of free time to explore the city center of Oxford, which is a genuine college town with hip restaurants and stores, including a Google Map milkshake and cookie shop, called Moo-Moo’s and Ben’s Cookies respectively, that were very popular among the young people. Because there are several other programs run during the summer in Oxford we saw a lot of students around town everyday, which created lively energy and a chance to meet new people from around the globe.
Before I left New York, my dad told me how proud he was that I was going on a trip like this by myself; as I was hoping, I was not alone for long as I made amazing friends and had an unforgettable experience. Contrary to popular belief, though, there is homework and a lot of essay writing at these academic summer programs, so make sure you know what you’re in for before signing up! However, I highly recommend this program to all Hewitt girls.