My Fantastic Week in the U.K. summed up in a thousand words.

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My best friend went to London for her senior trip in high school, and I was always so jealous. Most of my family has been to parts of Europe, so it was only destiny that when the opportunity arose for me to travel overseas I got pretty excited. Swansea, Wales – although not actually located in Europe. A ten day trip, with two days in London! At first, I wasn’t going to go because I didn’t see how it would apply to my curriculum and because it was over spring break I would have to miss a week of work. But a good friend, Megan, who also went on the trip, was able to talk me into it. I went to the first meeting and decided I had to go. Not only was I going to work with a charity, but I would get to have hands on experience working with a client and on a deadline. All of these would help me excel in a real world career after graduation.
The price seemed pretty reasonable for everything that was included, and I was able to get a small scholarship to help pay for the trip. As the weeks got closer and closer to departure date to Swansea, Wales I couldn’t help myself getting more excited to travel to a place that nobody I knew had been to. I absolutely love flying, so I wasn’t nervous at all for the flight, except that it was an eight hour flight. I had no idea what I was going to do with all that time. Anyway, the group of us that went was ten students and two professors. We met pretty regularly to prepare for the trip, plan our execution of the projects, and to talk to get to one another.
The greatest part of the trip was definitely the projects and working with the client. My group, the five of us and one professor, Dr. Nelson, found a charity called Discovery. They are very similar to the Student Volunteering group on campus. Discovery is based on the campus of Swansea University but caters to several different missions around Swansea and is open to both the community and to the students. We kinda knew before going over there that the three guys who are broadcast students were going to produce a video for the charity and us two girls are going to produce tactile information for them, but we didn’t know exactly what they wanted until we met with them in person.
So, it wasn’t before long when it was time to go! It was time to travel the longest day of my life to get to Swansea. We started pretty early in Oklahoma City, flew flawlessly to Washington D.C. then to London. I was getting over a cold, so my ears were pretty miserable for both flights. Then it didn’t end when we had a four hour bus ride from London to Wales. We got to the hotel right after breakfast but me and Megan took a nap. After a while of sleeping we walked around for a bit and ended the night with a fancy dinner to celebrate being in Swansea!
The next few days were pretty eventful, meeting with the girls who are office for Discovery, sight-seeing, visiting some of Discovery’s missions, and of course lots of foreign food. The first day we saw lots of historical sights, pretty sights, and even a beach. It was pretty chilly and I’m pretty sure I complained the entire day about being cold. We got to meet with the charities that evening and learned our objectives for the projects. Lauren and I, she is Public Relations and I am Advertising, were to make a pamphlet or brochure that targeted the community to get involved with Discovery and volunteering, not just students. The next few days our group split up, the guys interviewed and shot video and Lauren and I brainstormed and even started on the layout for a tri-fold brochure. We quickly learned that the resources for Swansea University for publication work is very limited and that we are blessed to have access to programs like Indesign, Photoshop, and even Publisher.
One of the missions we went to, Red Cup, was just astounding! On a certain night lots of kids come here to hang out, play games, do homework, and hang out with friends. The purpose is to keep kids off the streets, basically. There are older teenagers, the volunteers, there who help watch over the kids and hang out with them. These guys are the support for the kids who may not have the best background. There were lots of really cool things about this place. Three of which stood out the most: an audio studio to teach the kids how to make music, a wish board where the kids wrote what they wished the Red Cup had, and the great kitchen/café- we were welcomed to warm delicious brownies shortly after arriving. Places like this just amaze me, I would love to volunteer my time working with kids like they do. It taught me a lot about caring for other people, and just enjoying life and the people with you.
As the end of the week drew near, we were all pretty excited to go to London! We got in pretty late, spent the night and toured London all day Saturday. Sunday we had to go back home and it was very sad. I know that the group had a blast going to Swansea, and would take the chance to go back any day. The trip may have also placed a travel bug in the fellow students. I have it pretty bad, I must admit. That week was definitely a fantastic and ranks among the best in my entire life. I wouldn’t change it for anything and I don’t regret anything about it. I learned so much in just one week, things I can’t learn in a semester long class room setting.
Lauren and I were off to rough start on the brochure, but when we finally sat down and worked on it together we got it done and it turned out great! We both are very proud of our work and can’t wait to use it in a portfolio to show perspective publication firms for my career. I definitely figured out that working with groups who don’t have the kind of resources to make publications at a reasonable cost is what I would like to do with my degree. This trip has given me so much experience and will give me a great edge over other people applying for the same position as me.

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