Sara Stid said she first fell in love with England when her son was studying there in the 1980s.
So when the opportunity to return came along, she took it.
Stid, an office assistant with the MSU Alumni Association, participated in Odyssey to Oxford last year. The program is run by the MSU Evening College, and is now accepting reservations for August 2001.
The travel-study program, a collaboration between the MSU Alumni Association, Northwestern University and Oxford University, runs from Aug. 28 to Sept. 8 and allows participants to take one of four courses for two weeks at Oxford University in Oxford, England.
The students take classes in the morning, travel on field trips in the afternoon, and attend general lectures in the evening.
“It’s just something I’ve always wanted to do,” Stid said. “England’s countryside is a beautiful place to visit.”
Stid was enrolled in the Historic Houses, Castles, and Gardens class. She said there were many people on the trip who had participated in the program before.
“There were a couple of people who were there last year when I was there and this was their seventh or eighth time going,” she said.
Retired MSU librarian Clarice Rosa has been on the Odyssey to Oxford trip twice. She said she saw the trip as an opportunity to continue to learn after retirement.
“It’s a way to keep your mind going and learn something new and see the world,” said Rosa who attended the event for the second time last year. “It was very informative.”
Rosa, who said she’s done “a fair amount of traveling,” highly recommends the trips.
“I think they’re great,” she said. “Otherwise I wouldn’t have gone again.”
Stid said she enjoyed the history of Oxford.
“In the U.S., if something’s more than 100 years old we tear it down and start over,” she said. “They have buildings that are hundreds and hundreds of years old.”
Part of the program involved a day trip to London.
“London’s OK,” Stid said. “But as far as I’m concerned, it’s like a lot of other big cities. I much more enjoy being out in the countryside.”
Louise Cooley, director of MSU’s Evening College, said Odyssey to Oxford is one of its most popular programs.
“It fills within the first couple months that the mailing goes out,” she said. “There’s 42 slots.”
For more information, contact the Alumni Association at (877) MSU-ALUM or visit the Web site at www.msualum.com.
