Thirty-nine hundred miles across the Pacific Ocean lies the sleepy college town of Cambridge, UK. A
place where only the most elite individuals attend and the professors write the
textbooks, the University of Cambridge, the second best university in the
entire world, was the destination for two Concordia students last spring who
decided to spend their semester in England.
Taking advantage of Concordia’s study abroad program “Concordia in
Cambridge,” Allison Dodgers and Blythe Harkenrider began their six-month stay
in the country at the Westfield House of Theological Studies.
What is Westfield?
Westfield House is
the theological college of the ELCE (Evangelical Lutheran Church of England),
which is attached to Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge. Each year, Concordia sends
two to three students to the college to continue their studies at what the
program’s informational document notes as “one of Europe’s premier academic and cultural centers.” While at the university,
students have the chance to attend lectures with students from the University at the Divinity Faculty, given by some of the world’s foremost theological
scholars, participate in intermural sports and campus activities, meet people
from across the world and travel throughout Europe. While promoting growth and
learning, Westfield allows students to not only learn their course material, but
also learn how to be independent in a brand new place.
“It’s not like a normal study abroad where
its like, oh I lived in this persons house and I learned Italian cooking and we
took trips to Spain. It’s like living in England for six months,” Harkenrider
said. “There’s no tour guide. I had to figure out where to go to get groceries,
where to get food, where to find my classes.”
Preparing for a Journey
Before setting foot in England, Concordia
students must apply for the program through Pastor Leininger, prepare for their
trip, sort out all finances and organize their schedule to ensure an on-time
graduation. The Westfield House program requires applicants to
have a minimum GPA of 3.0, a letter of recommendation from preferably a faculty
member and completed applications for both Westfield House and the Concordia
study abroad program. Though students do not have to be a theology major, it is
recommended, as the college offers predominantly theological courses. Once applications
are submitted, students must begin preparing their academic schedules not only
for their semester in England, but for the rest of their college career.
“The biggest thing
with study abroad is you have to be smart and plan ahead,” Harkenrider said.
“So for me, I laid out my schedule starting the middle of my sophomore year. I
planned it to a T.”
In addition to
planning ahead, students must also consider the finances involved in study
abroad. Unlike other study abroad programs offered at Concordia, the Westfield
House program allows students to pay normal tuition and certain fees to
Concordia, and students are still considered fulltime students at Concordia.
This means that all scholarships awarded to students still apply. However,
housing must be paid directly to Westfield House by students, rather than to
Concordia. Though tuition and housing may be a little easier to plan for,
students must also consider financing extracurricular activities such as paying
for travel, food, shopping and the like.
“Tuition wasn’t as
big of a deal because there’s not that much that you have to sort out,” Dodgers
said. “It was just a matter of having money to travel and do extra things. It
was stressful getting ready just because I didn’t know how much I would need.”
Traveling Europe
 |
| While on their month-long break, Dodgers and Harkenrider backpacked across Europe. The red person markers indicate cities visited by the duo. |
Despite these challenges,
Dodgers and Harkenrider made it to England, and the rest of Europe. Westfield
House’s spring semester is broken into two parts. The first part, known as
“Lent Term,” is a 10 weeklong semester in which students begin their studies.
The second part, “Easter Term,” is a brief 5 weeklong semester in which
students complete their studies. Unlike American universities, in between these
two terms is the British form of Spring Break, which is a month long. During
this time, students are free to relax and travel as they please.
“You can use your
time there any way you choose and I feel like we did all the things we said we
really wanted to do and we experienced so much more than we ever thought we
would.” Dodgers said. “During the break went to the west coast of Ireland,
Dublin, Berlin, Prague, Vienna, Cambridge, Rome, Florence, Pisa, Edinburgh and
Bath.”
With nothing but
backpacks and IPods, the women explored Europe one country at a time.
“It was scary
initially,” Harkenrider said. “We went to Ireland for St. Patrick’s Day first
and I remember getting on that plane and being like, this is crazy were just
two girls going around Europe with just two backpacks. No phone, no computer,
no nothing. I’d message [my boyfriend] and my parents and be like, ‘hey I’m
here, I’m safe, love you,’ that was it for a month.”
Finding Love Abroad
In addition to the
excitement of travel, the excitement of new love was also in the air. Of
course, what is Europe without a little romance? Not only did Dodgers discover
a wealth of new information while abroad at Westfield House, she also found her
fiancée who was a seminarian at St. Louis studying at Westfield House during Dodger’s
semester abroad.
“We had a weird
beginning because we didn’t know if we should start something when we were
leaving in a few months,” Dodgers said. “I was convinced that if he got placed [in
a seminary] in California we would break up. But then he said, ‘it’s not just
about location- I want you to want to do this too. I guess it worked because he
asked me to marry him and I said yes.”
Bringing it Home
From finding love,
to exploring Europe, to learning from the best professors in the world, the
Westfield House program seems to have a lot to offer to Concordia students
interested in exploring abroad. For Dodgers and Harkenrider this was an
experience that they both have declared they will remember forever.
Interested in Concordia's other study abroad programs?
Peter Renn the Director for the Center for Global Outreach
explains the other opportunities at Concordia:
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