Journalism Student Hopes Her Future Career Path Involves a Return to London

in Global Matters
April 7th, 2025

Josephine Best Relished Working and Living in London Through Study Abroad

Josephine Best has always wanted to move to London. With her dad hailing from Newcastle, England, and her uncle living just outside of London, perhaps it’s no surprise that Best is drawn to this cosmopolitan and culturally rich capital. In addition to family ties to the city, she has a great appreciation for London’s excellent public transit system that allowed her to explore the city’s history, culture, arts, dining scene, and more.

Studying Abroad in BU’s London Internship Program gave Best a taste of living and working in London. The program combines a professional internship with coursework that examines a particular academic area in the context of Britain’s history, culture, and society. After completing the program’s six-week core phase, Best and her classmates spent seven weeks in full-time internships with organizations across greater London while also enrolled in a related weekly seminar course.

Best interned at a music PR company, and while the experience taught her that she does not want to pursue music PR for her career, she now knows she should try a different path with her journalism degree and penchant for communications. Exploring interests or those opportunities that end up being not of much interest is all part of interning abroad. This helps students like Best determine what works best and gives them firsthand experience, on an international stage no less, before graduation.

“I’ve realized from classes and from that internship experience that I’m not really interested in music PR,” Best says. “I think it’s important to say I don’t know what I want to do at all, and I am graduating in a few months, so it was a nice way to test out an area in a set period of time…that I didn’t necessarily have to go after [once having graduated]. I was still in school, and I had that experience. I decided I don’t like that, so now I can move on, and look at other areas.”

Interning while abroad made the entire experience much more realistic as to what living and working in London could look like for Best upon graduation from BU. Although she is unsure about her exact career path, she is interested in returning to London and charting a path for herself. Learning how to navigate a foreign city and overcome challenges while abroad helped Best build resilience. That resilience and grit will certainly serve Best when she plans her return to London upon graduation.

“I just really enjoyed being there,” Best says. “I found, when I was back in Boston, that London is the first place I’ve ever been homesick for – that wasn’t my actual home, and I’ve never felt that way about Boston, unfortunately, so I really want to go back.”

Best also ended up playing an important role for BU London, when she decided to work as a residence life supervisor (RLS) after her program ended. That allowed her to stay in London for the summer and help build community for the students now enrolled in BU London programs – a community that she very much valued during her time studying abroad.

贝斯特说：“波士顿大学的住宿有助于建立社区，让你在国外时感觉更舒服。”“成为一名RLS学生让我更加感激我所做的这个项目。当我参加这个项目的时候，我的脚动症让我意识到我可以在这个夏天呆下去，他指导我度过了这个夏天，这超出了他的职责范围，帮助了我。”

最好的享受机会，以满足新的学生，并帮助他们适应他们的项目和时间在国外。

“在伦敦实习项目中有了自己的经历，然后看着新学生来到（波士顿大学伦敦分校），我为他们感到兴奋，为他们将要经历的所有事情感到兴奋。我真的很享受我作为RLS的时光，和那些造就了伦敦大学的人一起工作。”

贝斯特说，她一直与波士顿大学伦敦分校的教授保持着联系，并感受到他们致力于帮助海外学生创造美好经历的承诺，她补充说：“我的一位教授最后带我参观了议会，这真是太棒了。”