As Andy Roddick and Roger Federer prepared to take center court at Wimbledon, 21 George Mason University students arrived at Oxford University — primed for three weeks of intense scholarship and a bit of Harry Potter magic. Our opening dinner introduced students to a dining hall every bit as wondrous as Hogwarts’ hall — filmed just a few blocks away at Christ Church College.

This is the fourth time I’ve played a part in British study abroad (the other three times at Cambridge University), and student enthusiasm for the program has been broad-based and unwavering. Complaints are rare and small (“Where are the ice cubes?”), and praise lavish and continual (“We clap at the end of every class!”). They love being part of a tradition 700 years old, part of a lecture format that is refreshingly different from what they’re used to and part of an intellectual community that talks about books and politics at each meal.