At Oxford During the Pandemic: Spotlight on Junior Ning Xu
Sofia Aguilar ‘21
Ning Xu poses in the English countryside — Photo courtesy of Ning Xu
After Sarah Lawrence sent its study abroad students home last March following the first COVID outbreak and only allowed the Oxford program to welcome new students for the 2021-22 school year, Ning Xu ‘22 wasn’t sure if she would go to the U.K. after all. As an international student, her flight was longer than most, increasing her risk of infection, and she could have completed her studies remotely. But six months on, Xu has found studying in Sarah Lawrence’s most selective study abroad program during a global pandemic a surprisingly profound experience.
Xu originally applied to the Oxford program because of her interest in tutorials, which incidentally provided the model for Sarah Lawrence’s conference system. Across the pond, tutorials allow students to meet with professors for an hour every week and take a leading role in their studies, allowing them to prioritize subjects of interest.
“It’s not about what the professor wants to do, it’s what you want to study,” said Xu who has so far studied nineteenth-century British literature, theology, and ancient Greek and classical Chinese philosophy.“I’ve been very fortunate to have met a lot of great tutors who are thoughtful and considerate and equally passionate about what they’re teaching.”
Since she’s begun tutorials, Xu has had to learn how to conduct research more efficiently, process information faster, and structure essays more systematically, as students are assigned two papers a week that must meet the 1500 to 2000 word count requirement.
Her favorite essay topics have been those that she herself created, such as a discussion of Marcus Aurelius, the Stoic philosopher and Roman emperor “and his journal later known as ‘The Meditations,’” she shared.
But because of the ongoing pandemic and the United Kingdom’s national lockdown since December, all tutorials are conducted online through Microsoft Teams, and students are limited in their interactions with others, access to the campus spaces and participation in extracurriculars.
One of Xu’s friends, for example, was part of the Archery Club until it was cancelled halfway through the first term. Similarly, Xu hasn’t been able to participate in extracurriculars or gotten to know her fellow Sarah Lawrence or Oxford students.
“It can be very isolating and difficult because mentally and physically, you feel trapped inside,” she said.
Horse grazing in Port Meadows, courtesy of Ning Xu
Yet this pace of life has also allowed her some much-needed self-reflection. “I get up anywhere from 7 to 8 a.m.,” Xu said. “I like to make myself a cup of coffee and sit in front of my window to watch the trees, listen to the birds. Then I love to do devotion or yoga.”
Outside of working on essays and taking lunch breaks with her flatmates, she spends most of her time going out for walks in the Summertown neighborhood near her dorm.
“I’ll go to Port Meadows to watch the cows and the horses and the people…it’s very healing,” Xu said. “As a person of color, as a person of the international community, I feel like I’ve been given an opportunity to just be.”
Despite the intense workload, she appreciates even the most mundane parts of life, and doesn’t want the cohort of SLC students attending the Oxford program next fall to feel intimidated. Academically, she says, they’re more than prepared for what’s ahead, pandemic or not.
“The biggest advice I would give to them, and in a way to myself, is to be kind to yourself and to give yourself time to get used to this process,” Xu said.
With six months behind her and three more to go, Xu knows she made the right choice in coming to Oxford and is grateful for all she has learned.
“I might not have gotten the chance to meet a lot of British friends, I might not have gotten the opportunity to really explore London or other places in England, but the time will come when I will be able to do those things,” Xu said. “It just might not be now, and that’s okay.”