Veritas graduates realize their dream

Study abroad — Two sisters from Newberg spend a semester in England

Published: 3 Jan 2012, Newberg Graphic

Veritas scholars — Ashley (right) and Tara Newby worked in France, traveled in Ireland and studied at Oxford last summer and fall. They visited the Roman baths in Bath, England, in September during a one-month preparation for their term at Oxford. Two Veritas grads realized a childhood dream when they were both selected to participate in a semester abroad at Oxford University in England this fall. This topped a summer of adventures working custodial jobs at a Bible college in a suburb of Paris and hiking in Ireland.

Sisters Tara and Ashley Newby said they were thrilled when they both qualified for what they described as the experience of a lifetime. Both are working toward degrees in English literature. Ashley, 22, is a senior at Seattle Pacific University and Tara, 20, is a junior at Wheaton College in Illinois.

Tara is a devoted fan of G.K. Chesterton (she wrote her high school senior thesis on the author) and was pleased to walk in his footsteps while on campus. Not only could she find the settings of his writings all over town but she was able to meet and interview Aidan Mackey, considered by some to be the world authority on Chesterton.

She had communicated with Mackey when she wrote her paper and kept in touch through her work at Wheaton's Marion E. Wade Center, which has a collection of material from and about Chesterton. "Of course we should get together and meet," was Mackey's response when she told him she was coming.

The sisters ended up interviewing him weekly about his work and the transcription of the interviews will be added to the collection at the Wade center.

Besides its historic setting, Oxford also has a unique pedagogical approach. Students, Ashley said, meet weekly in what is known as a tutorial with a professor who monitors their progress on an essay and they may attend as many lectures as they choose.

The pair didn't get any grades and said that some of their peers received very little feedback during the eight-week term that started Oct. 2. Tara said the format of the studies is such that it is very much the student's responsibility to prepare.

The sisters' term at Oxford was preceded by a summer of grunt work at the Institut Biblique de Nogent, a Bible school in a suburb of Paris. Their mother, Susan, who teaches French at Veritas, helped them secure the jobs.

"I was in charge of the kitchen," said Ashley. That included the purchase of baguettes in the morning to feed students who came from across the French-speaking world. Her sister was assigned laundry duty and credited remaining slim to the numerous flights of stairs she had to climb daily.

"One of my favorite things was praying in French," Tara said, describing it as "an experience that really symbolized to me what the global church is."

Between work and studies they traveled in France with their parents before spending two weeks hiking in Ireland.