Hello!
I am currently studying abroad in London under LC’s England: Fine Arts program, and I’m so excited to be able to share with all of you the wonderful adventures that I get up to while abroad. Check out some of my other blogs to learn more about the program, the logistics of going abroad, and life as a study abroad student!
Today I want to speak a little more about my experience with my classes. While studying abroad is known most for its incredible benefits of exposure to new places and cultures, it is still a time to study. As my professors are very fond of reminding me, I am here not just on a trip or on a vacation, but to learn as well.
Study Abroad programs through Lewis and Clark are very easy to incorporate into your four-year plan. As I’ve mentioned before in a few of my blogs, there are quite a few programs through LC that take students all over the world, but if you don’t find one to your liking you can always work with the overseas office to discover a third-party program for you to enroll in. You’ll have to make sure the classes in these third-party programs are eligible for you to transfer the credits, but the team at the overseas office will be able to help you figure out the logistics of doing so.
I am on a faculty-led program through Lewis and Clark, so all of my classes are directly listed in the LC course catalog. Almost all of the LC study abroad programs are for full credit semesters, so four classes that each are four credit hours. Depending on the design of the program, all your classes may be chosen for you, as mine were, or you might be partnering with a local university and get to choose your classes. My previous blog post, studying abroad: where to start has more details about the different program types and their varying pros and cons.
The England: Fine Arts program partners not with a local university, but with an organization that serves other US universities for their study abroad programs. It’s called the Foundation for International Education, or FIE, and we get our housing, a lot of our programming, and our classes through them. This means that in our residential buildings, some of our neighbors are from other universities across the United States.
However, even with FIE, the Lewis and Clark program is a little out of the ordinary. We are our own separate group. All Lewis and Clark students dorm with other LC students, and all of our classes are limited to just LC students. We take our classes as a group and do our program excursions as a group. Most of the excursions we go on are paid for as part of our program cost, but the rest of the students within FIE pay for their own individual excursions. As far as I can tell, we are the only school that has this built in group dynamic.
My classes themselves are rigorous in that they are material I don’t normally engage with. As a computer science major on a Fine Arts program, I often find myself way out of my comfort zone in my classes, but my professors are understanding and accommodating to the needs of every student within our program. Class time is often spent outside of the classroom itself on field trips into Greater London and to various museums across the city. My Theatre in London class took us on a walking tour of London to point out the various places where Shakespeare once lived and worked. My Contemporary Art class took us to some of the most influential galleries in London. My Music History class took us to see an exhibition on Amy Winehouse, one of London’s most beloved artists.
The workload is similar to what one might expect from any other class at Lewis and Clark. It can be demanding on top of everything we do outside of class, but it is fulfilling and completely manageable.
Sometimes I have to stop to remind myself that I am getting credit for the incredible experience I’m having. The cultural richness I’m gaining from this trip is simply priceless, and I am so grateful for the opportunity.
