Amazing Opportunity

IES Abroad London- Health Practice and Policy was such a great opportunity. I'll be honest, London was never a place that I was dying to go to. But the program fit with my major and school and had a lot of great aspects of it. The staff at IES, both within the Health Practice and Policy program and outside of the program, were great! They help you to feel accommodated and comfortable with being abroad. Although the orientation at the beginning of the program was a little boring, it was very helpful and helped me to feel more at home in this new city. London itself was amazing. I am not much of a city person, but I really loved living in central London. You live at a residence hall called Kings Cross Student Accommodations. The rooms are SMALL, but everything is in Europe! The building itself is very modern and really nice. There is also a gym in the building that I took advantage of every day. The location is really what is great about Kings Cross. By the name of it, you can probably predict that it is right near Kings Cross Station. Being near such a large station made transportation extremely easy. The IES academic building is only about a 20 minute walk or you can take the tube. The academics were great and the professors were all very experienced and helpful in any way you may need it. Through the health practice and policy program, you will take two HPP classes at the IES center as well as an elective course at the center. The classes are really interesting and the work is very manageable. One thing that I would suggest is to start working on things early! You will have your prompts for your final papers when you start the class. Start working on it as soon as you can (especially before Oxford starts) so that you are not stressed at the end of the semester. The other part of this program is a course at Oxford University. This is an 8 week program, so you will not go for the first month and a half or so, so take advantage of your three day weekends while you can! Oxford was a great opportunity and a cool experience. But I'll be honest, having to travel there and spend the day on Fridays was a little bit of a drag as it makes weekend travel a little bit harder. The course also requires a good amount of work. You will have about a 1500 word paper due each week so make sure you don't procrastinate! The class itself is pretty interesting but it certainly was not my favorite part about the program. Even with Oxford on Friday's, I was still about to travel to 7 different countries! One being Jamaica which you will go to at the end of the program. Jamaica was probably one of my favorite parts of the program. It is a really great opportunity and gives you a chance to really see first hand some of the things you have been learning about and see how the healthcare system works. Overall, I really loved my semester abroad. One thing that I would suggest is to travel around Europe, but also don't forget about London and other parts of England! Take advantage of all the opportunities you have and enjoy the time you have because the semester goes by so fast!