As the fall semester nears its end this month and a new year begins next January, students and parents may consider summer options for the former to enhance educational opportunities, especially at the collegiate level. The Accolade offers the first in a series of articles related to what Sunny Hills students did this past summer either in traveling abroad or within the United States to get a head start in their college journey. If you participated in a similar educational opportunity, please don’t hesitate to contact us at [email protected] so we can share your experiences with our readers.
It all started in February when then-sophomore Chloe Aeum told her mom she wanted to travel to Europe, wherever country that may be, for the summer.
However, it was not plausible for their family to travel all together to Europe, so she could only go under one condition: she had to travel alone at age 16.
In order to make this possible, her mom did a Google search to find feasible options for traveling to Europe.
From then, she introduced Aeum to Oxford Summer Courses.
“I’ve been wanting to go to Europe for a really long time and honestly, I’m really fine with the idea of traveling alone,” said Aeum, whose travel desires stem from each European country’s beautiful architecture and history.
The program held from Sunday, July 21-Saturday, Aug. 3, would take place at Oxford’s campus in Oxford, about 62 miles away from England’s capital of London.
For $8,000-$9,000, with air fare ranging from $600-800, those participating in the program would choose from 35 subjects and attend 12 hours of classes per week while living in Oxford’s dorms and eating in its dining halls.
The only difference from being an actual college student is that none of the courses students take will count for college credit, and neither grades nor report cards were issued at the end, though Aeum did get a certificate of completion.
Aeum’s mother said she wasn’t too worried about her daughter traveling alone because the program’s rather short duration.
“I was very excited about my daughter having the opportunity to travel abroad on her own and I encourage my daughter to be independent and strong on her own,” Aeum’s mother said. “I would worry if the program was longer but 2 weeks is pretty short and 16 is right age to travel without a parent.”
Then a rising junior, she said she chose to attend the medicine course, which is meant to align with the actual major at Oxford. It included Oxford professors lecturing on such topics as an introduction to medicine, different approaches to patient examination, nervous and endocrine systems, preoperative care and anesthetics.
“I think the classes were pretty interesting just because the nature of the topic is very deep so there’s always a lot to learn in the medical field,” Aeum said. “And also I’m just deeply interested on a personal level.”
In addition to the standard lectures, participants also completed projects and demonstrations, such as a suturing activity, a medical procedure known as stitches, and an assessment where they had to perform a respiratory examination. Because no letter grades were given, students were given a simple pass or fail (Aeum passed), she said.
Professors also wrote letters of recommendation describing how participants performed during the course and comments about their work.
Aeum said the program only required 3-4 hours of academic work, including lectures, projects and tutorials, every day except Wednesdays and the weekends.
“If it was more like a normal school system; I wouldn’t have been comfortable with just going out and exploring the city, so I’m really thankful for that because it took the academic weight off of my shoulders so I was OK with just hanging out.,” she said.
FAVORITE PARTS OF HER OXFORD EXPERIENCE
The small group tutorials, consisting of 2-3 people led by a teacher, made a lasting impact on her, the junior said.
“During the tutorials, I really got to talk deeply with my teacher, and I also got to ask her a lot of questions about Oxford,” she said. “I got really lucky because she was an admissions officer, so I could ask her about all my admissions questions.”
She said the most important thing she learned was the existence of a test called the University Clinical Aptitude Test, which applicants interested in attending Oxford, as well as any other university in England, are mandated to take.
Upon completing the summer program, Aeum said she has developed a clearer understanding of how she will try to execute her career path in medicine.
“I’m not fully set on what exact path I want to pursue in medicine, partially because the real decision-making is pretty far in the future,” she said. “And I want to allow myself to fully experience medical school and everything with an open mind rather than being fixated on one specific field.”
Regional Occupational Program Medical Careers teacher Paul Linares said programs like these are a good way for high school students to explore their career choices before applying to college.
“Summer programs are always a good idea to make sure that they understand what they’re getting into, or maybe they have to take a detour to figure out what they want to focus on,” Linares said.
But to obtain a degree for that particular medical career, Aeum said she would have to take four years of undergraduate work at a U.S. college followed by another four in medical school.
And then to start practicing medicine, she would have to take 4-7 years in residency.
“I do want to apply for Oxford because if I do go there, it would only be a six-year program, so I would be saving two years compared to if I did medicine in the U.S.,” she said.
Even if she were to get a medical degree in England, she could still practice in the US by taking the US medical licensing exam.
FREE TIME
When not in the classroom, Aeum said the students could use that time to study, participate in activities like outdoor games or do whatever they desired, allowing room for bonding with everyone in their cohort.
At first, Aeum said she was nervous of the cultural differences, as she has never experienced living with people from diverse backgrounds, growing up in Fullerton and attending classes predominantly made up of Asians.
“There’s a lot of stereotypes, especially on Americans and Europeans, and a lot of them tend to have a view that Americans are kind of uncultured,” she said. “I was concerned about that especially because I was the only Korean in my cohort, so I was definitely worried about getting discriminated, but it didn’t really feel like that.”
Her cohort consisted of about 70 people, who attended the program during the same dates as her, with a varying ethnic make up from Asian to others.
Despite her concerns, the junior said it was easy to befriend her peers because the environment supported such nature. Her cohort did not have roommates, but regardless, she said she spent a lot of time with the others in the program, enough to be comfortable with them by the second day.
Aeum said she stuck by a girl she grew closer to in the beginning of the program as they made more friends together.
“A lot of it was like, ‘Do you have Instagram?’ and I was asking that like a million times, and we exchanged our numbers as well,” she said. “I have a group chat with that one big group that I hung out with all the time, and we still talk pretty frequently.”
Outside of the campus, Aeum said she participated in sightseeing activities; for example, she went on a group tour in which she saw landmarks including the Bodleian Library and the Christ Church Dining Hall, where the “Harry Potter” movie series was filmed.
“There’s not a specific thing that stood out, but I think as a whole, while I was there, I was like, ‘Wow, I really love this place,’” she said. “That whole experience of going out with people from all these different places and being able to explore a city that we’ve all never been to was really cool for me.”
However, she said she didn’t get to try the cultural food in London and didn’t have a culturally different experience with food as the meals in the dining halls were standard cafeteria food that you would find in the states.
Likewise, when out in the city, Aeum did not get to try much of the local, cultural foods found in the United Kingdom.
“Well the United Kingdom isn’t really known for having prominent cultural dishes so my friends and I didn’t think to look for British food or anything like that,” she said. “I also don’t think there were many restaurants in the area either with cultural foods anyway.”
Instead, she mainly ate from fast food chain restaurants that were accessible and easy to find even in the United Kingdom.
“I was really surprised because there were a lot of big American chain restaurants like McDonald’s and KFC right down the street, so I went to a lot of them,” she said. “The only thing different was that I think it was a little more expensive.”
On the final day of the program, the junior said the students had a formal dinner which was meant to replicate the actual graduation experience of Oxford University. They also had a goodbye party, which they call a “Bop.”
Though she was expecting more of an academic focus for the program, the social focus did not hinder her from a fulfilling experience.
“I’m really glad I went and I wish I could’ve stayed longer,” Aeum said. “Honestly, I’m kind of glad that it was more social-based because I got to hang out more with people.”
FINAL RECOMMENDATIONS
Although it was nerve-wracking to travel alone for the first time, the junior said the excitement weighed out the anxiety, as she enjoyed situations where she was forced to be self-reliant.
“I learned to be more independent and not rely on my parents on my parents whenever there’s an issue which I consider a very valuable lesson because it’s something I’ll definitely need once I become an adult and step out into the real world,” she said.
The program would be best beneficial for students who want to have a true college experience, as she had to step into an environment with new people, which is the same as entering college for the first time, she said.
“I definitely would recommend this program to others if you are interested in applying to Oxford even just a little bit,” Aeum said. “You learn a lot and you can also learn about the city and meet people from all over the world; where else can you meet people from European countries or Asia?”
