The end of the Summer is now here for our students in Oxford and what a Summer it has been for everyone at the beautiful Queen’s College. These students have made the very most of their time here, taking part in a huge array of different activities from ice skating to a Great Debate. It has been a true pleasure to host them in this academic and historic city!
The central part of the programme has of course, been the academic endeavours of our students here, and lessons have always been dynamic and challenging. Queen’s has seen a whole host of diverse subjects as our students have been studying on Broadening Horizons, which is designed to allow a wide breadth of module choices to allow students to tailor their programmes to their bespoke learning requirements. Modules ranging from Acting and Performance to Journalism to Medical Biology have taken place in college over the last two weeks. Those on our Summer Architecture Programme have enjoyed some of the most historically renowned structures in the UK. For this reason, they have taken excursions to Christ Church, the Bodleian and the Radcliffe Camera to gain inspiration. Overall, lessons have been hugely successful and as our students return home they do so with a wealth of new knowledge.
Socially, all of our students have engaged with one another, as well as the international environment here, brilliantly. It has been a real joy to witness friendships blossom. Sports has been a popular way for bonds to be formed, as our group took part in football at university parks, ice skating, Zumba and running, just to name a few. Everyone had the chance to work as a team in the final ORA Olympics of the Summer and despite not coming out on top, the experience was still unforgettable.
This cohort has benefitted from hearing the insights of guest speakers, most notably Baroness Manningham-Buller at the ORA Great Debate. The ex-director general of the MI5 offered her insights about the importance of leadership and bravery to any career path. A bonus – our Queen’s students won the whole debate! Well done to Maria and Elizabeth for showing courage and eloquence. In the ORA Masterclasses, our students proved to be budding entrepreneurs as they ‘mastered’ the Stockmarket Challenge, with some even quadrupling their original investments.
Queen’s students also got to experience life outside of the city of Oxford as they headed for London for a trip to the West End. They got to choose from a range of fantastic plays and musicals, and before their evening of drama they had the chance to see some of the sights from Buckingham Palace to Covent Garden.
After such an enriching couple of weeks, graduation was the perfect occasion to close the proceedings here at Queen’s. As our final students partied out their session, it was also the end of the Summer for a large portion of our campus staff who we would like to extend our deepest gratitude to for all of their hard work this year.
Well done to students and staff alike from this final cohort, it has been a brilliant way to complete the Summer here in Oxford and we are certain everyone will flourish in whatever path they choose next. We hope to see you all again in Summer 2020!