Joe Dillon '16 wouldn't recommend this kind of "homework."
While a student in the prestigious Master of Terrorism, Security and Society program at King's College in London last June, Dillon experienced his course matter up close and personal.
He was outside his London apartment on a Saturday evening when gunfire erupted nearby. "There was just panic and pandemonium and people running everywhere," he remembered of the incident that started with a van driving onto a crowded sidewalk and ended with three men shot dead by police after stabbing dozens of innocent victims. "Screams. Pure terror."
Ultimately, seven people were killed and 48 injured in what became known as "The London Bridge Attack." It was the third such terrorist incident in London within a month.
"I was so freaked out afterward, I just left," Dillon said. "Ended up going to Italy for a little bit. I couldn't think about studying terrorism."
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'St. Ambrose really taught me how to write and research, and those skills are applicable wherever you end up studying.'
Joe Dillon
After a brief respite that included a visit in Venice with former St. Ambrose Chamber Choir mates who were on a tour of Europe, Dillon did return to London. He completed the intensive yearlong degree program in September.
"When I went back, I did a case study on that particular attack," he said. "I wanted to use it in my analysis because I understood it differently. I thought about terrorism differently after the attack. It became more real."
The frightening reality and proliferation of terrorist acts are reasons the King's College program draws students of all ages and backgrounds from around the world. Dillon won admission to the program after earning his St. Ambrose Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science with a 4.0 GPA.
Dillon said a strong liberal arts grounding and the academic rigor provided by St. Ambrose prepared him well for the intense master's program.
"St. Ambrose really taught me how to write and research, and those skills are applicable wherever you end up studying," he said, adding that an SAU course on global terrorism taught by Duk Kim, PhD, gave him a huge edge in London. "There were a lot of weeks I didn't even have to read the materials because Dr. Kim had pushed me so hard. I had already read all those things."
Dillon moved in the fall to Washington DC, where he hopes to use his King's College training and SAU-honed sense of social justice to combat the kind of terror he experienced in June.
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