Bradford woman Leanna Cameron is headed to Oxford.
Cameron is studying for her master’s degree in integrated marketing communications at St. Bonaventure University.
“I applied for and was accepted to study at Trinity College Oxford University in England for six weeks this summer — June 28 to August 11 — where I would take two classes in Oxford as part of my masters program on a global scale,” Cameron said.
The opportunity is through the Francis E. Kelley Oxford program at St. Bonaventure. She will graduate in December.
Cameron was working in sales at Zippo Manufacturing Co. while going to graduate school, but had to give up her job when she couldn’t get six weeks off.
“I had a very big decision to make knowing I wouldn’t have a job upon my return and I will most likely have to relocate out of my hometown to find employment,” she said. “However, this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to study at one of the most prestigious universities in the world, and I couldn’t turn it down.”
While in England, she will be making sure that St. Bonaventure is getting some international recognition.
“St. Bonaventure University offered me the opportunity the manage their international marketing and brand campaign with the Bona Wolf while in England,” she said.
Cameron, 29, is looking forward to the opportunity.
“One of the most prestigious and best known among the colleges that make up the University of Oxford, Trinity is one of the smaller ones in terms of student numbers,” reads a letter given to Cameron that describes “life at Trinity.”
Trinity College, Oxford, was founded in 1555, and has small student numbers — 292 undergraduates and 136 graduates.
Cameron said it will be difficult to be away from her family — including her son, Brady — during the time away, but added she knows that this experience will ultimately benefit him as well. She is a single mother, and said she is furthering her education to make a better life for her child.
She’s overcome a lot to make it this far. Her twin sister, Alissa Cameron, died on Jan. 5, 2008, after being struck by a vehicle in a parking lot in Bradford. Exactly one year later, her father, Donald Cameron, was struck down by an aneurysm.
Both were organ donors, and the family made the tough decision to use their losses to help others.
“I’m doing it for both Alissa and I,” Leanna Cameron said, “because she was supposed to study abroad in Australia in the summer of 2008 and was awarded the Vera Heinz Scholarship.”
Alissa Cameron passed away before she was able to fulfill that dream, but her twin is fulfilling it for both of them.
“If definitely hasn’t been an easy road,” Leanna Cameron said, “but I have faith that all this hard work will pay off and I’ll find a career with an amazing company upon my return.”
