Semester at Harlaxton College a chance to experience other cultures, have an ‘out-of-body experience.’
by Duane Bonifer
COLUMBIA, KY. (10/30/2025) Lindsey Wilson University student Taylor Harvey ’26 had read about and seen images of England online. But she didn’t appreciate the country until she visited it last May on a school trip.
Harvey was part of a group of Lindsey Wilson students, faculty and staff who participated in an immersive study-abroad program at Harlaxton College, a Victorian manor in England’s East Midlands.
On Wednesday, Oct. 29, the group told current Lindsey Wilson students why they should consider spending a semester studying at Harlaxton, which is located in Grantham and is the University of Evansville’s study-abroad center in England.
“You can see these places online, you can read about them, and you can look at pictures,” said Harvey, a business administration and Christian ministries double major from Columbia. “But that doesn’t substitute actually being in a different country, experiencing different people and different cultures.”
Touring England on campus
The Lindsey Wilson students set up a dozen stations throughout the J.L. Turner Leadership Center to show the benefits of spending a semester at Harlaxton, which is about three hours north of London. Each station showed the Harlaxton experience from a different student’s perspective using a different form of media. Some students, such as Harvey, showed short video clips of their experience, while others displayed a collection of photographs they took on the visit, played a slide show or showed off a book they produced about the trip.
“We wanted to do something free-form,” said Sierra Coe, Jim and Helen Lee Fugitte Science Center laboratory coordinator, who was part of the May trip. “We didn’t want to have a formal presentation because everyone learns and gets inspired in a different way. We wanted different perspectives and each of them to inspire students in different ways.”
Tapanga Wood ’29 said she was drawn to the exhibit because “I have been interested in studying abroad for a while, and this is a really good opportunity.
“I want to study abroad because it gives people the opportunity to experience different cultures and to learn about different things,” said Wood, an education major from McKee, Kentucky.
Cultural exchange
And that’s what a semester at Harlaxton will do for students, according to physics professor Mark McKinnon.
McKinnon led the initial trip to Harlaxton, and he is heading back there in the spring to teach three courses. McKinnon said the biggest reason to study at Harlaxton is to experience a different culture.
“America is so like England, but we are so different at the same time,” he said. “Spending an entire semester studying there is a chance to get to know the people and their culture really well.”
An added benefit to Harlaxtan is that it’s because it’s located in relatively rural Grantham, “Lindsey Wilson students will feel comfortable there.”
“It’s such a beautiful place to study, and there are so many places to walk and bike to take in the region’s beauty and the countryside,” he said.
Whitley Gibson ’27 and Emma Snyder ’26, who each made presentations about their Harlaxton experiences, said that exploring the region and its nearby cities was also a bonus of visiting the school in England.
“It really is an out-of-body experience it was just amazing,” said Snyder, a human services and counseling major from Glasgow, Kentucky. “Traveling is something most people don’t get to do, but doing it while studying is just an awesome experience.”
Gibson said she hopes to be able to return to Harlaxton.
“I want to go back and explore more,” said Gibson, a human services and counseling and media studies double major from Edmonton, Kentucky. “I grew as a person. It might sound cliche to say, but it was an experience that I couldn’t compare to anything else.”
Lindsey Wilson University student Connor Wilhoit ’27, a psychophysiology and history double major from Campbellsville, Kentucky, discusses his experience at Harlaxton College during a presentation about the study-abroad experience on Thursday, Oct. 29, in the J.L. Turner Leadership Center.
Lindsey Wilson University students Emma Snyder ’26, a human services and counseling major from Glasgow, Kentucky, left, and Whitley Gibson ’27, a human services and counseling and media studies double major from Edmonton, Kentucky, discuss their experiences at Harlaxton College during a presentation about the study-abroad experience on Thursday, Oct. 29, in the J.L. Turner Leadership Center.
Lindsey Wilson University students Allee Harris ’26, a business administration major from Harrodsburg, Kentucky, left, and Reagan Black ’26, an education major from Liberty, Kentucky, display promotional passports that students received while learning about study-abroad opportunities at Harlaxton College on Thursday, Oct. 29, in the J.L. Turner Leadership Center.
Lindsey Wilson University physics professor Mark McKinnon and Sierra Coe, Jim and Helen Lee Fugitte Science Center laboratory coordinator, helped organize the tour of Harlaxton College, a Victorian manor in England’s East Midlands that is available for a semester-long study experience. The tour was held on Thursday, Oct. 29, in the J.L. Turner Leadership Center.
Lindsey Wilson University is a vibrant liberal arts university in Columbia, Kentucky. Founded in 1903 and affiliated with The United Methodist Church, the mission of Lindsey Wilson is to serve the educational needs of students by providing a living-learning environment within an atmosphere of active caring and Christian concern where every student, every day, learns and grows and feels like a real human being. Lindsey Wilson offers 28 undergraduate majors, five graduate programs and a doctoral program. The university’s 29 intercollegiate varsity athletic teams have won more than 120 team and individual national championships.
(Duane Bonifer – Lindsey Wilson University)