Keble College is unique among Oxford’s colleges: it is built entirely from brick. When the quad opened in 1870, its departure from Gothic Revival tradition sparked outrage. Students from the neighboring St. John’s College founded the “Destroy Keble Society,” chartered to destroy Keble “brick-by-brick” (The only membership requirement was stealing a brick from Keble’s wall!). Now, Keble’s brick edifice is a symbol of pride. Keble graduates receive a (foam) brick with their diplomas, symbolizing their diverse contributions to the college’s very foundation. This metaphor—which I heard in an address just before formal dinner on the first day of my exchange—stuck with me throughout my time at Keble.
In my ten short weeks at Oxford, I found an intellectual home. Although Dartmouth prepared me well for Oxford’s rapid pace, Oxford tutorials are unlike most Dartmouth classes. I took two tutorials: “Political Theory from Plato to Rousseau” and “British Politics and Government since 1900.” In weekly one-on-one classes with my tutors, I’d defend the paper that I wrote based on an extensive reading list. I checked out over eighty titles from the Bodleian Library for my two courses.
I also found a deeply intellectual environment at Oxford outside the classroom. I participated in informal research discussions with graduate student friends at weekly “Cheese and Why" sessions, engaged in interfaith exchanges through the college chaplain’s “Theology Embodied” series, and attended debates at the Oxford Union. Through both tutorials and more informal forums, I developed relationships with faculty and students across disciplines. I continue to connect with one of my tutors, whose reading recommendations on populism sparked my independent research on the political consequences of rural hospital closures.
Unlike some universities’ Oxford exchange programs, Dartmouth students enroll as fully integrated visiting students. As a fully integrated member of the Oxford community, I was able to participate in societies and compete in college sports. Bringing my experience as a coxswain for Dartmouth’s heavyweight rowing team, I joined Keble College’s rowing squad. College rowing teams at Oxford are a mix of elite athletes (who compete in the Oxford-Cambridge Boat Race) and students with no rowing experience. About a quarter of students—graduate and undergraduate—try rowing at some point during their time at Oxford! I was most excited to compete in the unique Summer Eights regatta. In late May, crews line up on the Thames and try to hit—or “bump”—the boat ahead of them (which leads to predictable chaos in novice boats). The club also organized social events with other college rowing clubs, giving me the chance to explore other Oxford colleges. I built relationships through the Keble College Boat Club that spanned degrees, disciplines, and colleges.
I quickly learned that rowing is only one of the many traditions that define life at Oxford. Three times a week, I joined my friends—Dartmouth exchange students and Keble students—for formal dinners in the Keble hall. Academic gowns and formal attire are still mandatory for the three-course meals. I also became involved as a volunteer in the Keble chapel. The college choir and organ scholar—whose late-night practice sessions would shake my dorm’s walls—lead three weekly services, including Evensong, a hallmark of the English choral tradition. Underneath vaulted ceilings, mosaic walls, and stained-glass windows, I worked alongside student volunteers and the college’s chaplain and found yet another community at Oxford.
At the chapel’s year-end party at his residence adjoining Oxford’s University Parks, the college chaplain presented me with a Keble brick—the same polyurethane brick graduates receive alongside their diplomas—signifying my service to the Keble community.
During my short time at Oxford, I immersed myself in a community—athletic, intellectual, and spiritual—that has enriched my experience as a Dartmouth undergraduate. Within my exchange student cohort, I developed among my closest friendships at Dartmouth. I returned from England fortified in my commitment to policy research. Funded by a Rockefeller Center Honors Thesis Grant, I have spent the last six months immersed in rural health policy, working on an ethnography of Vermont’s smallest hospitals. Alongside this ethnographic thesis research, I am fielding on a national study on partisanship and rural health politics.