Brown-Smith Honors UK Study Abroad

Summary: This summer, I had the incredible opportunity of going on the inaugural Brown-Smith Honors UK Study Abroad sponsored by the Craig & Galen Brown Foundation. This month long program at the Imperial College of London and York St. Johns was designed to help incoming Brown Scholars form connections and grow as leaders before entering into their first year of college. During my time in the UK, I learned more about the traits of leaders and innovators, explored a variety of cultures vastly different than my own, and received valuable mentorship on having a successful collegiate career. However, the most valuable part of the experience for me was forming an awesome group of lifelong friends through our shared discovery of all that UK has to offer.

When I first found out about the study abroad, I knew that it’d be a great chance to make friends before college while growing as a leader and person. However, if I’m being completely honest I was pretty nervous that the other students on the trip would be people whose life completely revolved around studying. After all, I thought, there can’t be that many people who are able to find time for social activities while maintaining the high academic standard required of a Brown Scholar.

Evidently, the answer was way more than I thought. My friends from the trip and I still joke about how we all had the same worries. Looking back, we should have realized that everyone would be an incredible person both in and out of the classroom, considering that’s the whole point of the Brown Scholarship. After sneaking out of the first lunch (which didn’t have enough food to even be considered a snack) to get a proper British meal of fish and chips with a couple other scholars, I quickly realized that all my worries were completely unfounded.