During the three weeks of the summer school program at Exeter College, Oxford University, George Mason University students are among those enrolled from all over the world. Each student’s day is slightly different, but a shared rhythm emerges by the second week, uniting our students with those from as far away as Australia, China and Russia.

Dawn breaks at 5 a.m., and shortly thereafter the crow, who perches daily on the Exeter College chapel, begins to caw in short bursts: three caws, four caws. At first I thought he was a fire alarm, but when I saw the crow proudly perched atop the roof, I knew he was Exeter’s harbinger of day.