The Honors College is proud to offer its students a variety of interesting and academically stimulating opportunities throughout their time at Lubbock Christian University, and one of the lesser known opportunities is the Honors College’s connection with Oxford University in Oxford, England. This prestigious experience comes from the Honors College’s partnership with Scholarship and Christianity in Oxford (SCIO), the United Kingdom center for the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities.

The opportunity to study abroad at Oxford is available to all Honors students during the entire year, including the summer semester. The Honors College has recently welcomed home its 2019 Summer Oxford Scholar: Sarah Fantinel. Sarah is a senior at Lubbock Christian University who is majoring in English and Humanities. She is involved across the campus as a leader in the band, a participant in the theatre, a member of both the Alpha Chi and Sigma Tau Delta Honors Societies, and a Mattox Scholar in the Honors College.

Sarah describes her experience in Oxford as “simply wonderful.” The program she participated in involved taking two classes with teachers at Oxford; she describes both classes as academically challenging and exciting. Her Science and Religion class, taught by Dr. Bethany Sollereder, challenged her understanding of the relationship between science and religion, encouraging her to take a more interdisciplinary style to her research and critical thinking. Her Creative Writing class, taught by Dr. Kieron Winn, exposed her to new ways of both reading and writing prose and poetry. Both classes required Sarah spend a good deal of time in the Bodleian Library, one of the oldest and largest libraries in the world. Sarah describes this time for research as one of her favorite parts of her studies in Oxford because “to be surrounded by all that history really helps you understand and appreciate the traditions that you come from as a student. Also, it was really quiet, so it was easy to focus.”

Alongside taking two classes, the program takes the visiting students on a variety of field trips. Some of these field trips stay within the city of Oxford itself, and some of them venture out into the country and history of England. While the students traveled to small parish churches, C.S. Lewis’ house, and cities like Bath, Sarah’s favorite field trip “was the day we visited Stonehenge and Salisbury. Stonehenge was wonderful because of the mythos that surrounds it, and in Salisbury, we were able to climb the cathedral, which is one of the tallest in all of England, and [SCIO] had prepared us to fully appreciate both the artwork and the construction of the Salisbury Cathedral.” Sarah is currently planning on returning to visit Oxford at some point in the future, remarking that “I guess when you study abroad, the city you study in steals your heart.”

The Honors College is proud of the work that Sarah Fantinel has accomplished as the 2019 Summer Oxford Scholar and is confident that she will continue to accomplish incredible things. She gives special thanks to the Honors College for all they have done to help her succeed in these once-in-a-lifetime opportunities, noting that “I could not have had this amazing opportunity without the hard work and generosity of Dr. Patty and the entirety of the Honors College”. For more information, the Honors College will be giving a presentation on study abroad in Oxford on October 21^th at 7:00 pm at Lubbock Christian University.