From HBCU to the Highlands: My Scotland Adventure

---

This was taken somewhere near Isle of Skye

---

When I decided to study in Edinburgh Scotland my junior year of college.. it was an easy decision. I had been the year before with my sister and though we bickered the entire time I had enjoyed it. It was so incredible to experience how kind everyone was and I was blown away by how accessible the natural landscapes were. The only hard decision to make was picking the program and institution I wanted to study at. Since I was coming from Spelman College, I felt prepared academically to go for a bigger institution and wanted to be challenges .. this led me to enroll at The University Of Edinburgh.

---

There were a few challenges that were ahead of me and though I managed to tackle them ( +1 to Alexis), it wasn't easy and I had to think critically about how I wanted to navigate them. The main challenges ahead of me were understanding how my identity was perceived in the UK, transitioning from a small HBCU to a large PWI and understanding the impacts of class on the way British people navigate their institutions.

IDENTITY IS IMPORTANT:

Identity : As you can imagine, identity was a huge shocker for me! Many people knew I was American as soon as I spoke but telling them my relationship to the African diaspora was very nuanced. Since Black British folks have a different relationship to the UK than African Americans in the US, I had to bridge the gap of communicating how I am deeply settled in my American identity AND Black identity. Nonetheless, having to learn to have those conversations made me more effective at bridging cultural gaps and helped me learn how other Black people in the diaspora navigate race in countries where their families have chosen to settle.

HBCU vs PWI:

The next challenge that spanned my entire tenure in the UK was the shift from attending a Historically Black women's college to being the only Black person in all of my classes. Walking into my Print culture in the Victorian Era class was definitely shocking to say the least. It didn't help that I didn't get to attend the first class due to registration issues! Despite the hassle that registration caused it was the least of my issues academically. For starters, Spelman is very hands-on and nurturing to the academic and professional development of Black women so to lose that support for the semester was something to be mindful of. Especially considering that most of my classes abroad only had three assignments. I had to worry about doing well with limited practice on assignments and unknown expectations from lecturers. I finished the semester with one A, one B and the dreaded C+ (but I passed!). I fought very hard for that C and yes I still hate that lecturer til this day. Even with these grades being my lowest performance academically, I was proud of stepping out of my comfort zone and those courses were higher level classes so I was enriched in so many ways.I am deeply grateful however for receiving that support at Spelman because it made advocating for myself a lot easier and allowed me to show up authentically.

Outside of the differences in the differences in academic support , going from a women's college to a Co-ed institution is something many people don't discuss. Many people were confused on how Spelman is able to exist as an institution and for me, I was confused on why men took up so much space in the class. Thankfully , I don't care to appease British asshats so I continued on in my own world but I definitely noticed how gendered the class presence felt in contrast to my experience at Spelman. This differences in demographics also meant that the conversations often felt lacking of the nuance that I was used to at Spelman. It felt like people were afraid to push to actually productive conversation and instead relied on reductive points that lack substance in challenging the status quo. I will say that this could just be the state of higher education and that maybe I was just very spoiled by Spelman, but I noticed this difference nonetheless.

I had many challenges but I had so much fun too! I explored difference cities such as Glasgow, St Andrews, The Isle of Skye and ventured to the Highlands several times. I got to meet Holly Black (one of my favorite authors!) , see Florence + the Machine and Beyonce in concert and met so many incredible people that I know will go out and change the world. I wouldn't change my experience for anything. For any Black girls reading.. just go! You will experience challenges .. twas is life but you will also come back with a sense of curiosity in the world and memories that will remind you that the world is beautiful. It's been years since my study abroad journey in Scotland and I still think fondly of Scotland and will continue to travel back .

Anyways.. hopefully Scotland goes on your travel list! Stay tuned for my itinerary on what you should do in Scotland and stay Whimsy!

-Love Bri