OXFORD, Miss. – Allison Croghan of St. Louis returns to the University of Mississippi this fall after studying abroad during the spring semester and completing a summer internship with ESPN.
A senior journalism major in the Meek School of Journalism and New Media, Croghan studied for four months in London, immersed academically and socially in the local culture. She traveled extensively and earned 15 hours of academic credit at the CAPA London Center, an affiliate program of UM’s Study Abroad Office.
“I had wanted to study abroad since I was a little girl because it was hard for me to understand the world without experiencing it,” she said.
She returned home in mid-May, spending two weeks relaxing before heading to a summer internship at ESPN headquarters in Bristol, Conn.
“I am a broadcast journalism major, and after working as a sports intern at KMOX in St. Louis, I decided that I would like to pursue a career in sports broadcasting. I would love to work as a sideline reporter for ESPN someday,” she said.
On her study abroad, Croghan’s top priorities besides excelling academically were traveling and making new friends.
“I had never been to Europe before, so I really enjoyed traveling to new places and meeting interesting people from all over the world,” she said. “There were students from quite a number of American universities, mostly from California, Minnesota, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania; however, I made sure that I wasn’t hanging out with only Americans. I belonged to the Student Union at Imperial College, and I also joined their gym, so it was fun to meet students our age from around the world who were also studying there.”
Her courses included broadcasting, advertising, media ethics, introduction to Shakespeare, understanding Britain and British broadcasting.
“I really enjoyed going to school in such an historic city, because we were able to take field trips to deepen our knowledge and understanding of certain topics. We visited the Globe Theatre for my Shakespeare class, went to BBC and the press complaints commission for my ethics class and on walking tours and to the first mosque in Britain for my understanding Britain class. It was a nice change of pace from going to school in a college town like Oxford to going to school in such a vibrant city.”
She also joined other UM students studying at CAPA to discuss American life with their new European friends. They told them about Ole Miss, including the Grove and football.
“If the Grove has a bunch of Europeans running around it next fall, that is probably because they fell in love when we described it to them,” she said.
On weekends, she traveled around Europe, including trips to Holland, France, Italy, Switzerland, Scotland, Belgium and Ireland. At the end of Croghan’s study, her mother joined her for two more weeks of travel, to France, Italy, Czech Republic, Germany, Switzerland and Belgium.
“It’s tough to choose what my favorite place is that I have visited, because they all had something different to offer,” she said. “If I had to choose, I’d say St. Andrews in Scotland. I would love to go to the British Open there someday since it is the home of golf. I also think it would be really neat to study at a university there.”
She plans to stay connected with her American friends from her study in London, and in fact already has made contact with some of them.
“A lot of the kids in my program at CAPA were from the East Coast, so I’ve had some great tour guides while I’m interning up here,” Croghan said. “Instead of being nervous about moving to a state I’d never been to before, I was excited about traveling to a part of the states I had never seen. It just goes to prove that God really puts people and situations into your life for a reason.”
A 2007 graduate of Cor Jesu Academy, Croghan is the daughter of Michael and Debbie Croghan.
For more information on UM’s Study Abroad programs, go to http://www.outreach.olemiss.