{"id":360,"date":"2014-05-27T14:11:55","date_gmt":"2014-05-27T14:11:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/ksa\/?p=360"},"modified":"2014-05-27T14:12:47","modified_gmt":"2014-05-27T14:12:47","slug":"ever-thought-about-studying-abroad","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/ksa\/2014\/05\/27\/ever-thought-about-studying-abroad\/","title":{"rendered":"Ever thought about studying abroad?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Virginia Tech Study\u00a0Abroad\u00a0– Jamie Hissey<\/strong><\/p>\n

If a university\u00a0 education is not only to achieve a qualification but to broaden your life\u00a0 experience then an opportunity to study abroad must be one of the best ways of\u00a0 helping to attain both of these goals. Having been a loyal architecture student\u00a0 at the University of Kent for both undergraduate and postgraduate, I wanted the\u00a0 opportunity to experience new teaching styles that would help me build on the\u00a0 solid educational foundation that Kent had already provided. When I heard about\u00a0 the possibility of studying abroad at the Washington Alexandria Architecture\u00a0 School (WAAC), Virginia Tech, I jumped at this opportunity. I submitted my\u00a0 portfolio to the department and was fortunate enough to be selected to\u00a0 represent Kent at the Virginia Tech Architecture School. I was also successful\u00a0 in gaining a Study Abroad Scholarship from Santander.<\/p>\n

On arriving in\u00a0 Washington DC I was welcomed into the school with open arms. Since 1985, the WAAC\u00a0has served to house a consortium of architecture\u00a0 schools from all over the globe. Currently, 13 universities are part of the\u00a0 consortium. This structure provides exposure to a diverse student and faculty\u00a0 perspectives and promotes and encourages a unique design dialogue. Once I had enrolled, I was met with\u00a0 many other students from all corners of the world under one roof. This\u00a0 was an amazing chance to live and work with other students from all\u00a0 across the world and learn from their experiences, design methods and teaching.<\/p>\n

\n
\"\"<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Virginia Tech\u2019s classes are chosen on a credit system with further\u00a0 opportunities to audit other classes that interest you. With the variety of\u00a0 classes taught at the school I chose to study \u2018The Theory of Urban Form\u2019 and\u00a0 \u2018Advanced Computer Aided Design\u2019 alongside my thesis project entitled \u2018The\u00a0 Embassy for Tea; A Didactic Landscape\u2019. This final year project was started at\u00a0 the WAAC with the aim of returning to Kent to further develop the proposal\u00a0 using a combination of skills acquired both at Virginia Tech and Kent. I\u00a0 selected 3 tutors to serve as my committee members who each specialised in\u00a0 different fields of Architecture to tutor me throughout the term. The newly refurbished\u00a0 studio space and individual work station further encouraged me to make full use\u00a0 of my tutors and time at the school.<\/p>\n

The university\u00a0 accommodation was a complex of apartments in a converted church that made it\u00a0 easy to meet new people and socialise. During the time abroad I had the\u00a0 opportunity to visit many of the architecturally significant cities on the east\u00a0 coast including New York, Philadelphia, and of course Washington DC. As a school\u00a0 we also had the amazing opportunity to visit Frank Lloyd Wrights \u2018Falling\u00a0 Water\u2019 and \u2018Kentuck Knob\u2019 in Virginia. Other highlights for me included playing\u00a0 a season of rugby for Washington DC, experiencing a real American family\u00a0 thanksgiving and making a number of friends for life.<\/p>\n

\n
\"\"<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

I really feel as\u00a0 though my time studying aboard has greatly benefited me as an architecture\u00a0 student. Being granted the opportunity to study abroad for the first term but\u00a0 return to Kent for the remainder of the year has enabled me, with the help of\u00a0 my tutors, to take what skills I gained at the WAAC, refine and combine them\u00a0 within the Kent program which will hopefully mould me into a better architect.<\/p>\n

To find out how you could study abroad, please visit the university GoAbroad <\/a>site.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Virginia Tech Study\u00a0Abroad\u00a0– Jamie Hissey If a university\u00a0 education is not only to achieve a qualification but to broaden your life\u00a0 experience then an opportunity … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28911,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[54289],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/ksa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/360"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/ksa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/ksa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/ksa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/28911"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/ksa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=360"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/ksa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/360\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":363,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/ksa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/360\/revisions\/363"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/ksa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=360"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/ksa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=360"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/ksa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=360"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}