Koch Fellows Recount a Magical Oxford Summer

India Bhalla-Ladd '17 had been imagining this since she was a freshman at NCS: the chance to walk the streets of Oxford, England, as a student, not a tourist; the opportunity to attend university-style classes with students from around the world.

 

Her chance came last summer, when she was chosen for the Koch fellowship, which provides for two juniors to participate in the Oxford Tradition. That program allowed Bhalla-Ladd to study two subjects of her choice for a month at Oxford University.

 

And the experience, she told NCS classmates on Oct. 13, "was everything I'd dreamed it would be."

 

Bhalla-Ladd and the other Koch recipient, Mary Pelson '17, recounted their fellowship experiences before an assembly of Upper School students. Bhalla-Ladd chose physics and the future as her major and literature and the fantastic as her minor, while Pelson studied development and economics as her major and neuropsychology as her minor.

 

The classes were challenging—the students were introduced "to the frontiers of modern physics," Bhalla-Ladd said, including string theory and quantum mechanics. At the same time, teachers used a mix of formal instruction and informal discussion time to make the subject far more approachable. There were no tests or assessments, and Pelson said it was exhilarating to be with classmates committed to "learning for the sake of learning."

 

"I was a minority not just as someone from America but as someone who spoke English as her first language," she told the Upper School. Her classes included discussing the Syrian refugee crisis "with someone who lives right next door to her camp and volunteers there four days a week; infrastructure growth with someone who doesn't have paved roads in her town."

 

The classes also made time for tours beyond the university. Bhalla-Ladd's group, for example, visited the Culham Centre for Fusion Energy, a trip that "made everything that we were learning in class so much more real."

 

Each week, the students spent 27 hours in class, which left plenty of time for personal adventures: rowing on the Thames, learning to salsa-dance, performing yoga in the university's private gardens, or attending lectures around Oxford.

 

"When there's generations upon generations of history surrounding you, no matter what you're doing, it feels incredibly meaningful. And that's magnified when you're studying there," Bhalla-Ladd said.

 

For their contributions, spirit and dedication, the Oxford Tradition awarded both Pelson and Bhalla-Ladd the prize in their respective majors. (A third NCS student, Gigi Ewing '18, who attended the program on her own, won the prize in English literature.)

 

The Koch fellowship was created in 1982 in honor of John S. Koch, the father of Anne E. Koch '74 and Sarah Koch '81, and it recognizes excellence in expository writing. To earn the fellowship, Pelson and Bhalla-Ladd each wrote an essay and sat for an interview that also included fellowship sponsor Constance Koch.