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By
Jamie Willhelm
Harlaxton College Web Design Student
Monday, April 7, 2008
Judy Theisen was trying to take a shower. She was in Edinburgh, Scotland, in a hotel, and she could not get the shower head to work.
Wearing only a towel, Theisen called in her Harlaxton College roommate, Katherine Waxon, whom she had known less
than a month. They tried -- in vain -- to get the shower running, so they ended up having to call down to the hotel's front desk to ask
the receptionist how to turn the shower on.
Later in the trip, Theisen, a 19-year-old Marian College student from West Bend, Wis., lost her wallet and camera. Waxon, a 21-year-old University of
Wisconsin-Eau Claire student from Hudson, Wis., helped her look. Eventually, thanks to their combined efforts, they found both items.
Both women cite this trip, one of the first they took together at Harlaxton College, as one of the reasons they are so close today.
"We're like sisters now," Waxon said. They said they got to know each other pretty well as roommates, but going on so many
weekend trips together helped to move their friendship along even faster.
Theisen and Waxon’s story is characteristic of students at Harlaxton College. The approximately 160 students, along with the faculty
and staff who live there also, form a community. But the communal atmosphere was present even before the students arrived at the manor.
It began with the very first travel adventure that Harlaxton students went through -- getting here.
It began with the orange Harlaxton luggage tags that everyone got at the airport, said Brandon Bowman, 20,
Louisville, Ky., a student from Western Kentucky University. All students and faculty traveling to Harlaxton had the same bright orange
Harlaxton tags on their overstuffed suitcases and carry-ons. Theisen said that the first time
she saw one of the orange tags, she thought, “Thank God, I’m in the right place!” The students knew that behind the orange tags was
someone as jet-lagged and discombobulated as they were.
Students who spend a semester at Harlaxton say they form a bond different than the normal bond between college friends. What makes the Harlaxton experience different from
other study abroad programs is the fact that all of the students are American, and they all live within the same manor.
“You live with everyone you hang out with, and you all share common experiences,” said Rachel Neer, 20, Gainesboro, Tenn., a sophomore at
the University of Evansville in Indiana.
Students at Harlaxton live together, eat together, attend classes together, travel together and hang out together. “Living in such
tight quarters, we’ve become really close, and it’s like our family away from home,” said Maria Gahan, 20, Evansville, Ind.
But one does have to take the good with the bad. Families do not always get along, and the same is true at Harlaxton.
“The problem with being in such tight quarters is that you don't really get any time on your own, and being around each other all the
time can make you feel pretty claustrophobic,” said Gahan, who attends the University of Evansville. “It could pretty much be a reality
TV show with all the drama that goes on, simply because we are all so close and there aren't very many of us.”
But the good aspects of the Harlaxton community tend to outweigh the bad, said Ron Faust, a University of Evansville professor who will be retiring after this, his fourth semester at Harlaxton as visiting faculty. “The students become lifelong friends with the other
students they meet here.” He said that the professor-student relationships at Harlaxton are different than at U.S. campuses, as well.
“You spend more time with the students here,” Faust said. “If you want to work out, you go (to the sports hall) and work out with
the students.” He says that in his experience, the relationships he has formed with students while at Harlaxton are closer and more
friendly than normal. He has traveled to Kansas
and met up with students from universities there whom he had in class while teaching at Harlaxton.
Jessica Gerlach, 19, Evansville, Ind., also noticed a difference in the way the college was set up as compared to her home university
in the United States. “I go to USI (University of Southern Indiana), which is a school of about 10,000 people,” said Gerlach, recalling that one of her USI classes had about 200 students. “It’s so cool to come here and be in a class of seven people. ... It’s a different dynamic; it’s more personal. It’s more like a community than a college.”
Harlaxton's costs are much higher than the in-state tuition that students from public universities pay, but they are not much different than the regular tuition and living costs for private university students or those paying out-of-state tuition at public universities.
"It was
actually kind of cheaper for me, because I'm out of state, so it got me an in-state price,"
said Elizabeth Thornton, a 20-year-old Western Kentucky University student from Nashville, Tenn. She said her school has a "deal" with the University of
Evansville and Harlaxton College to keep tuition costs lower for students, making study abroad more affordable.
Students at Harlaxton come from American universities ranging in size from 900 to 15,000 undergraduate students. The
majority of the schools are in Indiana, Wisconsin and Kansas. Students’ hometowns are even more widespread than that, including students
from Florida, Texas and California. But for this one semester, said Kiley Schneider of Darboy, Wis., “We’re all Harlaxton
students.”
Even “outsiders” feel the sense of community at Harlaxton. “I’m a visitor, and I feel very welcome here," said Aly Konkol, 20, Hudson, Wis. "I can’t tell
a difference between where people are from.”
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Harlaxton roommates and friends Katherine Waxon and Judy Theisen in front of Buckingham
Palace in London.
(Photo by Judy Theisen)
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Banners in front of Reception representing all of the schools that send students to
Harlaxton. Not all of these schools have students at Harlaxton this semester.
(Photo by Jamie Willhelm)
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