Today was our visit to Oxford and Blenheim Palace. As a history major, it was very cool to see the architecture and hear the stories of each location. There were plenty of reformation stories which are always cool to hear given their importance in Catholic history and theology. We started in Oxford near the location…

Today was our last day at the BCU campus. We ended our time at BCU with our group presentations that we had been preparing for since before we left. This was our way to summarize everything that we had learned and apply it to Healthcare and Education. My group, which was just the two of…

We had the opportunity today to explore the Ladywood Family Centre, a family center operated by the Wets Smethwick Enterprise (WSE) Charity. The center provides a place for children ages 1-4 to partake in pre-school activities while supporting their families as well. Many of these centers are placed in high-poverty areas as a means to…

Today our travels took us to the Black Country living museum in Dudley, West Midlands, England. The museum is an open-air museum boasting over 26 acres of land. There is multiple historical buildings, old mineshafts, people dressed to the period, and even an old-fashioned fish & chips shop. The museum tells the history of the…

Today was a very informative look into the UK education system with quite a lot of time devoted to special education. The various lectures revealed a lot of information that was new to me while also revealing some similarities between the United States and UK education systems. Our day began with an introduction to the…

Today was the perfect day to bring out my inner nurse, not that it necessarily exists. Over the course of the day, we went over a lecture on public health that included an interesting case study on tobacco, attended a few sessions of an annual nursing conference, met some adult nurses from BCU, and experienced…

Today was our opportunity to be full-on tourists. We spent the day in Stratford-upon-Avon, the birthplace of Shakespeare. My immediate thoughts were of St. Augustine, a city that similarly lacks tall buildings and hosts many repurposed historical buildings.  Our day started with a 45-minute train ride from Birmingham to Stratford. It is interesting to see…

With the beginning of proper classes and lectures today, there was a wealth of information to be gathered from the many different speakers we listened to. The introduction to the U.K. Health and Social care systems were immediate cause for comparison between the systems we had been accustomed to at home and what we were…

Despite feeling nothing but motion sickness during the flight to the airport in London, the initial two days in Birmingham felt rather refreshing. Walking through some parts of Birmingham on Sunday and enjoying some authentic fish and chips for lunch was very pleasant. Something that become evident quite quickly was just how multi-cultural Birmingham was….

My name is Alec Patterson and I am a current freshman at the University of Pittsburgh – Greensburg campus. I am studying for a dual-major in Secondary Education and History, with a minor in Psychology and certificate in gifted education. I am an active member of the SPSEA chapter on our campus and spend my…