Messiah College News Archive

BestSemester’s Scholar’s Semester in Oxford (SSO) has awarded nine spring 2012 students with deJager prizes for exceptional academic performance. Jessica Barnett `13 and Nate Van Wyck `13 from Messiah College are among those honorees.

Essays written for the three SSO courses—integrative seminar, British studies and thesis—are evaluated for scholarly excellence by SSO faculty, and particularly meritorious essays are judged winners in each of the three categories. Winning essays show originality of conception, ease in handling primary and secondary sources, professional handling of scholarly apparatus, lucid and stylistically appropriate prose, a sustained argument and effective rebuttal of counter arguments.

Van Wyck says about his experience in Oxford, “When I look back on Oxford, I realize that just about everything I did helped me grow both intellectually and spiritually. From my wonderful classroom conversations with tutors, to the dozen lectures I attended each week, to the long house I spent reading whatever book I wanted to in the library, to the exciting thoughts I had just looking around the beautiful old city, to the unforgettable chats I had with great friends back at the house, everything that happened at Oxford was significant, and I would love to do it all over again.”