This past summer, RWC professors Mike Roos and Mark Otten led a group of seven students on a study abroad trip to Great Britain. The trip began on June 15 and ended on July 9. For the first two weeks and five days, the group stayed at Harlaxton Manor, and the last five days were spent in London. The students participated in two different courses during the trip. One class was a traditional biology course, focusing on the topic of evolution and including a study of the life of Charles Darwin. The other course was in creative writing and focused on “The Evolutionary Self.” Both courses involved the topic of evolution and Charles Darwin, and the trip itself was the first event in a series of events at UC and RWC in celebration of the life of Charles Darwin.
Harlaxton Manor, an estate boasting 100 plus rooms, located about 100 miles north of London, is where the group had classes, slept, ate, and explored during the first part of their trip. Harlaxton Manor was built in the 1830s by the eccentric Gregory Gregory and is now owned by the University of Evansville.
The objective for the creative writing course was to have students explore their evolutionary self and to see how each of the students evolved through their trip. Students kept a daily journal of what they experienced and, at the end of the course, had to write a paper on how they had evolved.
Brittany Mustard, a student who participated in the trip, said of the experience, “I discovered who I am as a person, especially when it comes down to what kind of people bring out the good, the bad, and the ugly in me.”
This trip was not just for studying, though. When students were not in class or studying, they were allowed to do what they wanted. Students enjoyed traveling to the local town, Grantham, in their free time. During a free weekend, many of the students took a trip to Paris and Amsterdam, during which they participated in the practice of “couch surfing,” where they found local homes in the area that had an empty couch for them to stay the night on. Although this may sound a bit scary, it was completely free!
During the last five days of the trip, the group was finished with classes and travelled to London. Here, they took two trips: one to the British Museum of Natural History and one to the home of Charles Darwin.
*Next summer, another group will be travelling to Great Britain for a similar study abroad trip. For more information or if you would like to be a part of the next trip, contact Mike Roos at michael.roos@uc.edu or visit the RWC study abroad website at www.rwc.uc.edu/overseas/homepage.htm.