Nicole Diseker
Staff writer
When given the opportunity to finish her degree abroad, Demetra Wilkerson said “cheers” to friends and family and traded America for the United Kingdom.
Wilkerson was one of 10 students from Oklahoma designated as a Brad Henry International Scholar for 2013.
The international study program, established by the Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education in June 2008, provides a $10,000 stipend for students to participate in a semester-long study abroad program with Swansea University in Wales. Students were nominated for this program by their schools.
Wilkerson, who is from Durant, is the fifth student from Southeastern to be named a Brad Henry Scholar, according to the SE website. She is a senior majoring in communication and English.
Wilkerson has been on the president’s and dean’s honor rolls and is a Nigh Leadership Academy Scholar.
She has served as President of the Student Government Association and as a member of the Honors Program, Student Senate, Alpha Chi and Lambda Pi Eta. She has been editor-in-chief of the honors publication as well.
Wilkerson applied through the regents office. She sent a transcript, cover letter, resume and two letters of recommendation to apply for the program.
Wilkerson heard of the program beforehand from friends who were recipients.
She was both nervous and excited when applying.
“Despite reassuring, it is hard not to worry that you won’t get accepted. After finding out, I got nervous and excited again. I had never traveled, but I had always wanted to. Since I was little, I used to tell my mom that I’d go to Europe some day. It was surreal to realize it was days away, and I was going without family,” said Wilkerson.
She was given the choice of attending during the fall or spring semester.
“Since I like fall better, I chose fall semester,” said Wilkerson.
After arriving on Sept. 8, she was given a few days to settle in her new environment, then a two-week pre-session, and classes began on Sept. 31.
“Enrollment is different here. It’s first come-first serve. I was like, just sign me into this class. I don’t want to fight for it,” she said with a laugh. Submitting assignments is different as well.
“You have to submit it on Blackboard and it prints you a receipt, then you have to go to an office and turn in a paper copy with your receipt,” she said.
Perfect attendance for native Wales students isn’t viewed as necessary.
“For them it’s not as important. They’re not used to attendance counting for a grade. They take attendance for us since we’re international students though,” said Wilkerson.
Swansea University is located on the coast, north of Swansea Bay on the grounds of Singleton Park. The beach is across the street from Swansea’s campus.
“It’s pretty diverse. Not a huge campus, but pretty large. It doesn’t take long to get from one end of campus to another,” said Wilkerson.
She said it’s very full though.
“It’s really pretty. There are some older buildings, a lot of modern buildings with jagged edges and windows used for artwork,” said Wilkerson.
Wilkerson has 10 roommates, randomly selected from a mix of cultures including one from China, four from London, and one from India.
Being away from family and friends doesn’t seem to be too difficult for Wilkerson.
“I think I’ve actually talked to people more since I’ve left,” she said, “I still talk to them, harass them on Facebook. I have a friend who’s going to have a baby in a few weeks. I went to a couple of appointments with her while I was there. We still keep in touch.”
Wilkerson mainly communicates with family through an app called Whatsapp.
When asked what the biggest differences were between her hometown and current location, she said it’s the little things.
“It’s going to sound like the tiniest thing in the world, but you have to turn ON your power outlet. You have to physically turn on a switch to make it release energy,” said Wilkerson.
Everything has switches, windows open differently and the trash cans, or “bins” are all divided for recycling.
“It still gets weird dealing with money. Two weeks ago I was still calling them dollars and people would look at me weird and say they don’t know how much money that is,” said Wilkerson.
Wilkerson grew up watching BBC shows but is still confused by the language barrier at times.
“I would talk to my roommates and have to ask them what they’re even talking about because I had no reference,” said Wilkerson. “Nobody really says thank you for anything here, they say ‘cheers.’”
Differences in food are apparent as well.
“They have Welsh hotcakes, which are really lovely warm pancakes with raisins and powdered sugar on top,” she said, “Their Coke has way less calories, less sugar and is only 500 milliliters.”
Wilkerson has only seen two fast-food chains from the U.S.: KFC and McDonald’s, and both are healthier.
“They don’t use as much batter and they have to tell you the actual amount of calories you’re eating. You know exactly what you’re taking in,” said Wilkerson.
According to Wilkerson, it’s common to see people drinking and smoking in public across the pond.
“I moved in a couple of days early and two days later was move-in day. The noise didn’t really shut down ‘til 5 a.m. This happens almost every night,” said Wilkerson.
Since she doesn’t have a car, Wilkerson has learned the ways of public transportation.
“Public transport is great. It’s huge here. The way I got here, I landed in London. You have to take a bus to Swansea or you can take the train,” she said.
She had to learn which buses go where and at what time, which to take and which to avoid.
Wilkerson and fellow program students have bus passes for the semester, not having to pay.
During free time, Wilkerson likes walking to the park nearby and reading “Game of Thrones” books or Tolkien and playing with other peoples’ dogs.
“Pretty soon there will be rugby games and we’ll go support the team,” said Wilkerson.
Wilkerson recently attended a Jane Austen festival for the 200 year anniversary of the publishing of “Pride and Prejudice,” The Doctor Who Experience and plans to spend her Halloween in Amsterdam with friends.
She sat on the water’s edge of the Roman Baths in the West of England and viewed original statues of Caesar and Constantine, rekindling an interest in Roman mythology for Wilkerson. “The water still runs there, everything works. It’s beautiful. It’s cool to know that Romans were there, you know,” said Wilkerson.
Wilkerson is currently taking a class called “The American Experience,” over the year 1492-2000, taught by a British professor who has a degree in American studies.
“It’s been really interesting,” she said.” They were talking about Thanksgiving and they don’t have that here; my professor asked when the holiday is and some girl answered, ‘October?’”
Wilkerson thinks it will be an interesting subject discussing some of Oklahoma’s history.
“It’s going to be awkward talking about The Trail of Tears,” she said.
Politics are viewed differently across the pond.
“The people I’ve talked to have a generally Pro-Obama stand on the government shut-down,” said Wilkerson, “Since we’ve had the shut-down people have been asking lots of questions.”
Most of Wilkerson’s finals aren’t scheduled until January.
“There’s about 11 weeks of lecture and then your finals are due at a separate time. For international students they work around you. We’ll be able to turn them in online,” said Wilkerson.
Wilkerson will return to the U.S. for Christmas Break.