Ella's reflection on her recent travel experience completing a short course at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford University funded through a Liveris Academy travel support grant.
Ella O'Connor
Liveris Undergraduate Scholar
Bachelor of Science / Doctor of Medicine (Provisional Entry)
Reflecting upon my time at Lady Margaret Hall, it was more than I could have ever wished for and whilst I packed in as much as I could in just 3 weeks, I also wanted to stall time and savour each Oxford magical moment. Leaving my new friends and packing up my room was more difficult than I could have imagined. This experience created memories which I will always hold dear, lazy afternoons punting along the river Cherwell (a lot more difficult than it looks), and all of us abandoning the post-dinner night out, favouring playing cards in formal wear, I wear my brand-new Oxford jumper with pride, able to say, “I studied there”, even if only for 3 weeks.
When I was given the opportunity to participate in a short-term exchange at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford University, I was ecstatic. I chose to study a course in Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, well outside of my usual remit studying Public Health (moving into a Doctor of Medicine in 2026). I embraced it as an incredible pportunity to widen my understanding of a rapidly expanding industry with the potential to be as impactful as the Industrial Revolution. I was very interested in how this new technology might impact my usual study fields of Public Health and medicine. I particularly enjoyed learning about Natural Language Processing, the process underpinning some of the most well-known AI models, such as Chat GPT, which I knew almost nothing about prior to commencing this course.
The extra-curricular aspects of this Oxford program as international study, where everything was new, varied and different, were what made it truly special. I got lost in the ever-winding cobbled streets more times than I could count, explored ancient libraries, spent hours in beautiful bookstores, wondering how I was going to manage to bring it all home and spent an uncharacteristically long time watching the Euros football matches, passionately supporting Denmark, although I have never visited and am in fact an English citizen.
Getting off the train after a day moving through the north of England and the Yorkshire Dales, complete with rolling green hills and stone cottages, I felt like I was dreaming. Driving through the cobbled Oxford streets in a taxi on my way to Lady Margaret Hall, I gawked at the ancient towers soaring above the taxi, this was truly the city of dreaming spires. Arriving at Lady Margaret Hall, one of the ‘newer’ Oxford colleges, (as opposed to New College, founded in 1379…), I was whisked away into another world, a world of ancient libraries, formal dinners and incredible, lifelong friendships.
I am incredibly grateful for the generous support of the Liveris Academy in making this experience possible and I would recommend a short-term study abroad to anyone who has the opportunity, it is truly a one-of-a-kind adventure.
