I was invited by one of our friends in the Hendrix administration to participate in the Community Blog, and I’m happy to take part.  

By way of introductions, our daughter Lauren is in her 3rd year at Hendrix.  My wife, Donna, and I are empty nesters and live in St. Louis, and have a married son who lives in Seattle who is an engineer for Microsoft, and a daughter who lives in St. Louis and works as an elementary and junior high music teacher at our home school district.  We’re lucky in many ways, one of which is that we’re three for three, in terms of our children’s college choices working out well.  In many respects, Hendrix has been the best.

Lauren is half way through spending the entire year in England, with the first semester in London, and the second in Oxford.  In as much as study abroad is a part of the Hendrix experience for so many, I’ve decided to focus this submission on the England experience.

A year ago at this time, Lauren was highly focused on spending the year in England.  For Lauren, “highly focused” takes on more bandwidth than for most people.  This has historically served her well, as it’s contributed to her being a good student, a good competitive swimmer, and generally successful at what she’s taken on.  In the case of her interest in going to England, let’s just say that she left no stone unturned.  A disappointing grade on a paper became framed in whether it would result in her getting accepted in England.  Her lifeguarding work schedule over vacation was based on how much money she’d need to contribute to the cause.  It took a little longer that expected to determine who was accepted.  Thank heaven she was accepted.  Life was good.

With the admission issue resolved, off we went into the executional phase.  Even with Hendrix doing everything that one could reasonably expect to get everyone ready, those contemplating studying abroad shouldn’t expect that it all goes on autopilot.  Researching a visa, applying for it, then finally learning that it wasn’t needed (the 6 weeks home between semesters made it two separate trips and gave us a technical exemption) was a real pain.  School finances became exponentially more complicated, especially with one semester at a satellite Hendrix institution (Hendrix London) and one temporary transfer (Oxford).  Lots of things needed to be coordinated, down to assuring that the Oxford courses would be accepted at Hendrix.  Things we take for granted in Conway, like getting from the airport to the campus, required extensive planning in London.  In that case, it impacted how much Lauren could pack, because she had to carry all her belongings on the London “tube” to get where she needed to go.  A lapse in getting an absentee ballot wasn’t an option.

All this was okay, actually more than okay, because Donna and I had a side agenda with Lauren’s year abroad.  As the youngest of our children, we seemed to dote a lot on Lauren, and as a result, we thought her becoming more independent would be a good thing.  We’ve been awed by the transformation that’s taken place in this respect.  There’s nothing like the Atlantic Ocean to make someone feel like they’re separated from their family, and need to do things on their own.

Virtually everything we hear from “across the pond” has been positive.  Nice room mate (whew!), and great people in the program.  Lauren has made side-trips to Ireland, Paris, Florence, and Barcelona.  Surprisingly, these trips were fairly economical, although I have to confess, when Lauren and I were going over her spending to date, she wasn’t clear which expenditures were in dollars and what were in pounds.  Lauren took up water polo, and joined the University of London’s team (the “B” squad, but a team’s a team).  She claims she’s mastered the tube.  Cheap seats at the London theaters.  The pictures, e-mailed with regularity, are all smiles.  And why not?  New friends, new places, new experiences, and new confidence.  The latter is priceless.

The Bresler family gives the Hendrix study abroad a solid thumbs-up.  It’s one of many reasons that we feel very fortunate to be part of the Hendrix experience.