Author: Katie Hill | Major: Interior Architecture and Design | Semester:  Summer 2024

Lawn in front of Big Ben and House of Parliament

This summer I studied in London England for an interior design program. When I began looking at study abroad, I had two interests in the place I chose: I wanted it to have a program that was important to me, and I wanted to choose a place I knew a lot about. In high school I had an interest in the English monarchy. As a result, I read many books and did a lot of research over the monarchy and London as a whole. When I saw that London had an interior design program I was interested in, I knew it was where I needed to go. I spent 3 weeks going through a design studio. While my studio was similar to classes I’ve taken at the University of Arkansas, it was a great experience for honing some of the skills that I haven’t had the chance to go back and work on. I developed my ability to build an architectural model, and as a result built one of the best I’ve made so far. I also got to enjoy some new experiences in my classes, including building a full-scale model, working through the design process in a new way, and I learned how architectural terms are used differently in London. My favorite part of the experience was meeting new people from many different places and getting to develop relationships with people I never would’ve met otherwise. Through these relationships I got an insight into how my field works in different areas of the world, which is something that I will carry with me and will benefit me for the rest of my career.
My study abroad experience was a little different from what you would expect. Since my class was a shorter term, my parents joined me for my trip. This influenced my decision for where to study abroad. I wanted to pick somewhere I would be forced to engage with new people, so I wanted a program no one else I knew was doing. This worked out perfectly, while I had my parents there in the evenings and weekends to do things with, during class time I was able to make so many new friendships because no one knew each other beforehand. That alone made the experience very valuable to me, I now have connections in Mexico, Turkey, Japan, and so many other places. To maximize our time abroad, my parents and I chose to spend the weekends taking trains to other places, so I also got to experience Paris and Scotland. In the evenings we went to see different landmarks. Initially, I was worried that my class would take up too much time and I would miss out on the experience of being abroad some, but I learned that when you plan carefully, you can balance the study and abroad parts of study abroad easily.
Overall, if someone reading this is interested in study abroad, my recommendation is to think long and hard about what you really want from the experience and be willing to take risks and try something new. I was concerned about taking a studio course with no one I knew, but I quickly learned everyone else was in the same position as me, so we got to learn and go through it all together. I’m so grateful for the friendships I made while abroad. Also, when thinking of where you want to go abroad, make it somewhere that will be valuable and worthwhile to you. It’s important to remember that it’s going to be different and there will be a learning curve in learning how other people around the world operate, but it is so worth the experience.