10 THE RADLEY NEWSLETTER 10 THE RADLEY NEWSLETTER Universitie
s Stateside One doesn’t have to dig deep to find links between <strong>Radley</strong> and the United States: former Warden Dennis Silk was born in California, whilst renowned civil rights lawyer Clive Stafford-Smith OBE (1973- 1978, F Social) decided against a place at Cambridge in favour of taking up a Morehead Scholarship to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The current Warden and Sub Warden have on more than one occasion travelled ‘across the pond’ to meet up with ORs who live and work in the US. At any one time there will be several Radleians in the school with a US family background. Genealogical links aside, in what other ways is there a relationship between <strong>Radley</strong> and our former colony? Recent years have undoubtedly seen a growth of interest from Radleians in continuing their education at an American university. In truth only a trickle of students have ultimately enrolled on their degree course in the USA, but this trickle looks like growing. This can be explained only in part by the increasing difficulty of securing a place at a ‘top’ UK university – that is in a sense the negative reason for looking in a different direction. What are the positive reasons? George Cederquist (1992-1997, E Social) was always more likely than most to cross the Atlantic for his higher education, given his US family background. However, his recollection of “the exposure you get to so many different subjects” gives a big clue as to what attracts others to the US university system. Those for whom a decision on specialization does not come easily like the idea of the liberal arts approach whereby, in George’s words, you arrive “without a clue as to what you’ll major in”. As it is, George did pursue the sort of musical career that looked most likely in his <strong>Radley</strong> days, but he was more than happy to embrace the philosophy that “the knowledge of one subject can only be furthered by the knowledge of others”. A more recent <strong>Radley</strong> “export” is Henry Woodward-Fisher (2003- 2008, G Social), who is currently studying at Harvard. Like George he appreciates the extraordinary range of options available within his studies, contrasting this with the specializing approach that is typical of UK universities. Fully immersed in the “can do” culture of his surroundings, Henry is spending this year in China as he moves towards his degree in East Asian Studies, pausing briefly from his summer’s internship to say how “excited and amazed” he continues to be by the opportunities on offer – and to confirm plans for a visit to <strong>Radley</strong> in January to spread the good news about Harvard. Taking a more holistic view of the applicant is undoubtedly a reflection of the more rounded approach to studying that permeates through the US higher education world. Scholarship programmes that are geared to rewarding and nurturing talented leaders, sportsmen and artists are a key feature of the selection process. Indeed it was just one of these programmes that drew Clive Stafford-Smith to North Carolina and so influenced his career path. Even a brief sojourn within the dynamic US system can influence a young student’s outlook, as evidenced by a threeweek summer visit to William and Mary <strong>College</strong> in Virginia by Jamie Crole (2004- 2009, H Social), funded by the Malcolm Robinson Memorial Award. He talks of the “fantastic experience” of exploring a period of history that was new to him, something that two summer 2010 visitors to the same location (Barney Bracher, C Social and Alistair Shawcross, E Social) have also enjoyed. Barney talks of his eyes being opened to the exciting possibilities of studying outside Europe and his delight at gaining an “understanding of culture and history from an entirely different perspective” is palpable. It’s reassuring to hear from a current 6.2 student the view that the “structure and standard of <strong>Radley</strong>’s teaching” would offer every chance of academic excellence within the US system. We naturally expect that the four 2010 leavers who are heading to US universities this autumn will be achieving just that. Quite how dramatically the growth of OR traffic across the Atlantic will be is a story still to be told, but there are signs to indicate that there will be many exciting chapters: our US universities adviser Dr Jon Tabbert is seeing plenty of interest from parents of boys lower down the school, whilst ten 6.1 boys are shortly to start a series of SAT tutorial sessions being provided by a specialist company. It’s clear that imaginations are being captured – and an exciting expansion of <strong>Radley</strong>’s trans- Atlantic links looks a near certainty. Paul Gamble, Director of University Entrance Petar Dimov (C Social), Christian von Celsing (G Social) and Tim Nye (G Social) discuss their plans to go to university in the US with Paul Gamble in the Careers Library THE RADLEY NEWSLETTER 11 THE RADLEY NEWSLETTER 11