Bigfork grad studies in Oxford

The fact that’s she’s going to spend a semester at Oxford hasn’t quite set in yet.

“I was pretty shocked,” Amber McDaniel said after learning her application to study abroad at the English Ivy League school in the spring of 2015 had been accepted.

“It’s been kind of a slow realization over the last couple months.”

McDaniel graduated as a valedictorian from Bigfork High School in 2012 and completed her sophomore year at Arcadia University in Pennsylvania. She studies psychology and English, with a minor in criminal justice.

Arcadia encourages students to do a study abroad program, McDaniel said. The application process for Oxford is more intense than others, she said. McDaniel, who aspires to be a writer, decided she might as well go for it.

“So many writers have written books after studying there,” she said. “I figured if I’m going to study abroad I might as well shoot for the best.”

Though writing is her passion, McDaniel will study psychology at St. Annes College at Oxford. When McDaniel applied, she was focused on psychology. But after her application was in, she went through an existential crisis and realized she wasn’t studying her passion. So she added an English degree to her course of study. Before she heads across the Atlantic, McDaniel will get to see a piece of her writing come to life.

Arcadia’s theatre department is putting on a play about the life of Zelda Fitzgerald, which McDaniel wrote. McDaniel had been involved with the Bigfork Playhouse Children’s Theatre. So for her honors project, which had to be outside her major, McDaniel’s combined her love of theatre and writing.

“I decided it was something I haven’t done before,” she said. “It’s really exciting, it’s actually turned into something bigger than I originally hoped.”

The play is based on the life Zelda Fitzgerald, the wife of writer F. Scott Fitzgerald. “I fell in love with her so much during the process,” McDaniel said. “I’m excited to see something I’ve written on its feet.”

McDaniel is also presenting at the National Collegiate Honors convention in November. Her presentation is based on a research paper she wrote for a civil rights class and discusses “hipster” culture, and how it began with the evolution of slavery.

McDaniel has found that she has a passion for civil rights, which she defines as equality in all aspects of society. “There’s just so much injustice everywhere you look,” she said. “If we learn about it that’s how we can fix it.”

At Arcadia she holds four part-time jobs, and while in Bigfork she works at Bear Foods, the Bigfork Inn, one night a week doing concessions at the Bigfork Summer Playhouse and tutors some neighbor children. “I like having things to do. I don’t like idle time,” she said.

When she’s done studying at Oxford, she plans to travel Europe before returning for her senior year at Arcadia. When she graduates, she plans to do a solo backpack along the Appalachian trail. “That’s the ultimate goal,” she said. “I feel like that is a self-discovery kind of trip.”