UK/Ireland – DU Abroad

Finals are upon us at the University of Glasgow. Even though the University of Glasgow is on a semester school system we only have classes for nine to ten weeks like the University of Denver’s quarter system. However, the semester extends into December due to two weeks of “reading/study weeks” before finals. The actual classes could end in week 9, 10, or 11 depending on the subject and professor. Some of my classes left the last week or two open in case they were absent for a week and had to cancel a class. The last week would then be a makeup class for the missed material. However, if no classes are missed, the seminars (in-person classes) would end early. I believe I mentioned in my first couple posts that grades are decided with only a couple assignments. There are no weekly quizzes or participation/attendance grades. It is purely your performance on a few major assignments. It’s nerve-racking for many and coming from a school system where my grades in the past have relied heavily on the small assignments and participation grades, it was difficult to adjust. Halfway through the semester when we were submitting our midterm papers, I thought about how at that point in the quarter at DU I would have already had a couple major projects, papers, or tests. Probably a quiz or two on weekly readings, as well as participation grades throughout. Thus, finals week is stressful. Not stressful because we know the pressure, it is stressful because we know we should be more stressed than we are. I am used to wanting good grades on my finals but also knowing that the smaller assignments will boost and cushion my grade if I end up not doing well on final assignments. I know that my finals are worth 40, 50, and 100 percent of my grade out here but I find that I am having to remind myself of that every time I want to take a break from studying or I put off writing my papers. In my classes, other students expressed their stress, frustration, and worry about finals and midterms. They seemed flustered and asked each other so many questions. It seemed like everything that came out of their mouth started with a “What if…” and ended with a “I’m just worried.” I remember sitting silently observing their stress, asking myself if I should feel more nervous or worried. I remember sitting, trying desperately to think of a question about the assignment or something I didn’t understand about the instructions, but I always drew a blank because the assignment seemed fairly simple to me. I was worried that because I was a foreigner I was going to be blindsided and the assignments would be extremely difficult and painful to finish. But, everything is going smoothly. I am sure that if I had gone to school in the UK for a long time I would put more worry into the daunting finals, but I have been socialized to not put too much weight into finals because they only make up about 20 percent of your grade and it is still possible to get a good grade in the class overall without perfecting the final. I should be stressed, but I’m not.

Finals in Glasgow are not too difficult in the first place. In High School and college finals consisted of presentations, timed/closed-note exams, extensive research papers, and still the typical small assignment course load like quizzes and participation. In Glasgow, finals weeks consists of no in-person classes. All of my public policy and law finals are online and you have a week to work on them. Let me explain:

• Making Public Policy: This class was once a week for two hours. I wrote a 2500 word policy brief for the midterm which we were given information on in the first class. The final is five questions but you only have to answer two of them. The questions are released a week before the final is due and each question must be answered in 750 words or less. Just two short essays decide 50% of your grade.

• Education for Citizenship (Public Policy): This class had three assignments: a midterm paper of 2500 words, a reflective learning log that bullet pointed how the student prepped for the class and participated with a 500 brief reflection of how their learning will help them in the future, as well as a 750 word final paper. For the papers, the professor would send out a list of four topic questions and the student would pick one for their essays. Each paper was worth 40% of the final grade and the learning log made up 20% of the final grade.

• Law of Contract: The law class was different from all the other classes. It had a midterm that was not worth a grade. It was basically a trial run of the final. The final will consist of a problem question with multiple parts and it is worth 100% of my grade. It is timed and I will have two hours to complete it which is very reasonable.

The assignments are broad and students have a lot of flexibility in how they structure their answers, but we are still given rubrics and the graders tend to be less harsh from what I have seen so far. I have heard rumors about exams having a different format before Co-vid but no one really knows because everyone in my classes are the same year as me and have never attended college not in the era of Co-vid. This is an interesting concept in itself for 3rd year students but also for international 3rd year students because it makes you think how my experience differs from study abroad students in 2019 and before. My finals conclude on December 16th and then after a brief trip to London I will return home on the 22nd of December. My time in Glasgow is coming to a close, but I am just focusing on finals at the moment and learning to live in the now.

As a kid, there are so many things you are taught and things you do that you don’t think about. Growing up in America, you are used to getting ice cream at the Sonic or Wendy’s drive-thru, picking up groceries from Target or Walmart, riding in a car to get everywhere, etc. It wasn’t until I moved to Glasgow, I realized there was so much about my childhood that is completely foreign to people abroad. However, the conversation in my Public Policy class last week may have blown my mind the most when it came to growing up in America versus growing up in Scotland.

One of my classes at the University of Glasgow is called Education for Citizenship. It combines public policy and philosophy by examining the relationship between traditional education and an individual’s commitment to their community and political culture. Lately we have been discussing how critical skills and analysis can be taught or used in school for a more well-rounded education. My group was discussing how young children in elementary school can use critical skills at a young age because they are more perceptive than society believes. One of the girls in my group from Scotland was a camp counselor in Wisconsin last Summer and was describing a story where a kid asked her if he had to say that pledge of allegiance. She was explaining how she did not know what to say because she was not entirely sure the point of the pledge of allegiance or what it means to America. The whole group looked to me for insight because most of them did not know what the pledge of allegiance was. I gave a broad explanation and said it was something we would recite in school everyday typically when the school announcements would come on. I also explained it was different from the national anthem which is played at every sporting event even in High School. The group seemed astonished. Some thought it was silly, others declared “indoctrination”. The teacher who had joined the conversation at this point asked me if you have to stand or sit for the pledge of allegiance. I realized I completely forgot about that aspect of the pledge and quickly explained that you stand and place your right hand over your heart. The group seemed even more astonished and perplexed. After that, the rest of the discussion was all about the pledge, the national anthem, America’s patriotism, and how Scotland has nothing similar. The group said they don’t even know what the Scottish National Anthem is or says, they jus know that they have one. I was very entertained by their confusion, but it was eye-opening for me to realize something that I found completely normal, had never questioned in my entire life, and does not cross my mind on a daily basis was shocking to them. When the group was asking me why we do the pledge of allegiance, I did not really know what to say. I had never in my life wondered why people do the pledge of allegiance or questioned the words I was reciting. I told the group about instances in High School when kids would sit for the pledge in protest or when kneeling for the national anthem was a huge national controversy. They seemed even more confused when I explained this.

After the group discussions ended, the teacher brought the whole class together to share their discussions. She put me on the spot asking me to explain our discussion on the pledge of allegiance. I felt like a lab rat when I recapped my group’s conversation about the pledge of allegiance to the class. Everyone was staring at me like I was either crazy, making the information up, or like they felt sorry for me. I almost felt the need to say “It’s not a big deal! It is just the pledge of allegiance!”, but they would probably not understand.

That moment when the whole class was listening in disbelief is a moment I will remember forever. Not because I was embarrassed or nervous, because being born in the U.S.A is an experience unique to me. I have never lived outside the country before, I have only ever been surrounded by other kids who grew up in America just like me. Being in a new place, where that fact alone makes me stand out from everyone else is an interesting feeling. It doesn’t make me feel bad, it doesn’t make me feel better than anyone, it was simply unique. It will be a silly story to tell for the rest of my life, but on a more personal level, it was something that made me check myself and be grateful for the qualities I have. It sounds cheesy but I felt proud. When I see kids and teens in Scotland walking home from school or sitting on the train with their friends I sometimes stare for a second too long because I cannot even begin to understand growing up in another country. It seems like it would be so weird, but not to them. They probably don’t question it just like I never did. One day I hope they have the opportunity to travel just like me and see that some of the smallest things from their home country have made them who they are, and they should be proud too.

Blog Post 5 — University of Glasgow Campus Established 1451

Category: UK/Ireland

Taking Care of Business

Born in the U.S.A