The world of Winston Churchill is at the fingertips of a group of University of Lynchburg honors students this spring break.
Nineteen students from LC’s Westover Honors Program are in Great Britain this week as part of an honors colloquium on the former British prime minister who led the country during World War II. Dr. Ed DeClair, director of the Westover program, took the group to see firsthand the sites where Churchill lived, worked, and made decisions that influenced the course of modern history.
“Churchill gives us a window into most of the important events of the 20th century and a lot of different geopolitical issues,” Dr. DeClair said. “We’re not just studying Churchill; we’re studying Churchill as the fulcrum of other issues.”
The group departed Thursday morning. Its itinerary includes stops at Churchill’s birthplace, adulthood home, cabinet war rooms and museums related to the World Wars.
Studying in London will allow the students to understand the context of the political issues they have been studying this semester. It also will help them better understand the topics that remain in the course, including the decline of the British Empire and the rise of the Iron Curtain in Europe.
Abbigale Anderson ’16 said the trip has little to do with her major—environmental science—but she trusted Dr. DeClair’s insight when he recommended that she take the course. She has realized just how high a price Great Britain paid in WWI and WWII, and she looks forward to learning more about that by seeing the country in person. Doing so will strengthen her global perspective, she said. “To see that kind of dedication will be really cool.”
See more photos from the trip on the Westover Honors Program Facebook page.
