Punting Through The Past: A Day in Cambridge

 

by Madison McDonald (England/Scotland Alum '25)

Traveling abroad has always been something that I wanted to experience, and I was able to explore the world for the first time through Maryville College! I am writing from England, where I have studied Organizational Behavior for the past two weeks (plus a few days in Scotland). Our trip has consisted of indulging ourselves in the culture and new experiences, as well as visiting different international businesses.

Some of my favorite moments have included learning about Manchester United as a business and touring the facility, spending the day at Triumph Motorcycle, exploring Edinburgh, and trying different English/Scottish foods. In addition, we got to tour Cambridge University's historical campus and hear about life as a Cambridge student.

I found Cambridge to be an extremely beautiful city as well as campus. The different colleges all had unique architecture and stories to go along with them. The University was founded in 1209, making it third oldest in the world! After we toured the campus on foot, we went punting down the river and learned more about the colleges. A punt is a boat with a flat bottom that is pushed through the water with a pole. It turns out that punting is very popular in the area between tours and rented boats. The water was very relaxing and the weather was great. Our tour guide told us some of the myths and stories about the University as well as information I wasn’t aware of.

Something I learned was that a college is only considered the place where you eat/sleep. They compared it to the different Hogwarts houses, how everyone takes classes together but your accommodations are independent. Cambridge has about 30 different colleges with some of the most well known being King’s, Trinity, Peterhouse Clare and more. I think what stood out to me most about the difference between American colleges/universities and Cambridge was its age and architecture. Maryville College is only about 200 years old, which is very new compared to universities like Cambridge or Oxford. This difference was noticeable in almost every city we visited. America is a young country compared to England (a fact that we were reminded of by locals more than once).

Being able to experience a new environment and culture was so enlightening and I would highly recommend studying abroad to any student. 

Traveling with my peers and professors gave me a sense of security while doing something completely out of my comfort zone. Not only did I learn about Organizational Behavior and the United Kingdom, but also became more comfortable with myself as a world traveler. If given the opportunity to study abroad again, I would without a doubt do it!