The following is a summary of our vice president’s, Shane Peterson, summer internship with the Wordsworth Trust in Grasmere, U.K. If you have been on a study abroad trip, international internship, or travelled anywhere exciting, then please share your experiences with us by submitting to our website. If you are interested in applying for the Wordsworth Trust internship, then visit http://byuenglishinternships.wordpress.com/ for more details.

This summer, I had the opportunity to work as a student intern for the Wordsworth Trust in Grasmere, U.K., which is situated in the beautiful Lake District National Park. The Trust maintains the museum of William Wordsworth, a famous Romantic Poet. During my stay at the Trust, I was able to give tours of Dove Cottage to tourists, guide people around the museum full of Wordsworth artifacts, work on research projects in the Jerwood Centre, help out at special events for the Trust like exhibit openings, and attend sections of the annual Wordsworth Conference. I was also able to help the head curator, Jeff Cowton, curate and create a gallery for a WWI exhibit coming this November and create a guide for future BYU interns coming to the Trust.

My favorite part of the whole experience was being apart of an even the Trust put on to commemorate the centenary of World War I. We hosted an event at the Jerwood Centre, where a local history group and the glee club read letters, recited poetry, and sang songs from the time period. Then, for attendees of the annual Wordsworth conference, we opened up the Cottage and only had candles lit inside, reenacting what it would have looked like during Wordsworth’s day. Then, at eleven o’clock, we put out all the lights in the Cottage, museum, and residential houses as part of a nationwide blackout to commemorate those who lost their lives in the war. It was surreal and wonderful just being there on this historic occasion, and I felt privileged to be apart of it.

In my spare time, I was able to read a lot of Wordsworth, learn some basic Japanese vocabulary, eat some real English fish and chips, and explore the surrounding lakes, fells, and footpaths in the Grasmere Valley. I also visited surrounding villages like Ambleside or Bowness-on-Windermere and see some famous tourist attractions in London, Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwick Castle, the Cotswolds, and Oxford.

In all, this has been an incredible experience for me, and I hope to go back and see the Lakes again someday.