W&L Students Thrive in Oxford W&L students spent their summer immersed in history, literature and the time-honored British tutorial system through the Virginia Program at Oxford.

By Kelsey Goodwin
August 12, 2025

“This program is an amazing opportunity — academically, culturally and personally. It’s the kind of summer that changes how students see the world.”

~ Holly Pickett, professor of English

For six weeks this summer, a group of Washington and Lee University students, along with Holly Pickett, professor of English, traded Lexington’s Colonnade for the cobbled streets surrounding St. Anne’s College in Oxford, England. The group joined other students from colleges and universities throughout Virginia to participate in the Virginia Program at Oxford (VPO), a long-running summer program that blends rigorous academics with quintessentially British cultural experiences.

The program is operated by a six-school consortium made up of small Virginia colleges and universities, including Washington and Lee, Hampden‑Sydney, Mary Baldwin, Roanoke College, Sweet Briar and Virginia Military Institute, and gives American students a taste of Oxford’s distinctive tutorial system. The weekly schedule follows the classic Oxford model: daily lectures Monday through Thursday, delivered by English Renaissance scholars, followed by tea and conversation with professors. On Fridays, students complete intensive one-hour tutorials in both literature and history in groups of three students, guided by Oxford faculty.

“I always wanted to have that Oxford summer people talk about,” said Carter Gleason ’27, a politics major from Ballwin, Missouri, who is interested in pursuing a career in law, “writing our essays, reading in all the libraries around Oxford and doing our tutorials on Fridays. You can’t fake it in an environment like that. They’ll ask a question, then another, then another, until you have to say, ‘I don’t know.’ It’s nerve-wracking at first, but it’s also incredible preparation, especially for law school.”

For John Paul Hammond ’26, a music and European history double major from New London, Connecticut, the tutorials have been transformative.

“It was a little stressful the first time,” he said. “You’re going in with this very eminent history professor, but the conversations have been enlightening. You get to uncover facets of topics you wouldn’t get to consider otherwise.”

Beyond the classroom, Hammond has also pursued Oxford’s rich musical community, singing with the Cathedral Singers of Christ Church.

“It’s been a really fantastic opportunity,” he says, “challenging, but I’ve thoroughly enjoyed it.”

Each summer’s program director rotates between faculty from participating colleges. For Pickett, who last directed the program eight years ago, the role has been a rewarding opportunity to see students’ academic growth and personal curiosity.

“The W&L group is really strong,” she says. “They’ve been blending in, making friends, and they’re getting incredible feedback on their writing from their tutors.”

She also praises the students’ independence.

“They’ve learned to navigate new cities, plan their own trips and look out for each other,” Pickett says. “Those are the kinds of lessons that will stick with them.”

The program balances scholarship with adventure. Students attend lectures from historians and literary scholars, visit the Bodleian Library and travel to cultural landmarks such as the Globe Theatre and Parliament.

“We went to see a production of ‘The Merry Wives of Windsor’ at the Globe, which was awesome,” Gleason said, “and a group of us even sat in on a debate in the House of Commons.”

While some students jetted off for trips to Paris or Salzburg, Austria, during their weekends, Hammond stayed behind to tackle a unique challenge: the Oxford 43.

The Oxford 43 prize is the brainchild of Tuvshin Anderson ’25, a VPO alumnus who wanted to give back to the program in a new and creative way. During his time in Oxford in the summer of 2024, he learned that no student had visited each of the 43 colleges and halls affiliated with Oxford during the six-week program. Anderson, a history and German double major, not only completed the feat but decided to endow a prize for future program participants. Anderson reached out to Pickett this summer to establish the rules of the game and spread the word among students. The prize requires students to submit photos of themselves at each location prior to the program’s final banquet. Prizes of $100, $50 and $25 go to the top three finishers.

Hammond received the top prize for the Oxford 43 in addition to the Simpson Award, which honors the late Pam Simpson, the inaugural Ernest Williams II Professor of Art History at W&L and one of the founders of the Virginia Program and recognizes outstanding academic performance and community spirit in the program. For Anderson, who also won the Simpson Award, the challenge reflects what makes VPO extraordinary.

“It’s not just about academics,” he said. “It’s about venturing out, bonding with your cohort and really making Oxford your own.”

Anderson has been awarded a U.S. Teaching Assistantship (USTA) to teach English in Austria beginning this fall and says his international experiences at W&L, which included a semester in Vienna in addition to his Oxford summer experience, helped solidify his desire to attend graduate school in architectural or art history after his teaching assistantship concludes.

Pickett says this summer has reminded her of the program’s transformative power.

“This program is an amazing opportunity — academically, culturally and personally,” Pickett says. “It’s the kind of summer that changes how students see the world.”