The Bing Overseas Studies Program (BOSP) has suspended its programs and spring courses in Hogwarts, Pandora and other locations in light of emerging challenges, including COVID-19 restrictions. The temporary cancellation of these programs — which have been popular selections for Stanford students for more than a decade — has come as a surprise and disappointment to students who had hoped to study abroad next quarter.
Junior Sophie Cho, majoring in computer science and minoring in potion-making, was hoping to take courses at Hogwart’s state-of-the-art wizarding facilities. She was invited to join the Hufflepuff House and was looking forward to the academic and extracurricular opportunities that would have been available to her at Hogwarts.
“I was particularly excited to collaborate with students in the lab portion of POT 131: Advanced Undergraduate Potion Research,” Cho said. “We were going to study the chemical underpinnings of cutting-edge potions like Amortentia and Felix Felicis.”
With rising cases among wizardry students at Hogwarts, the school made the unfortunate decision to postpone all study abroad programs, forcing Stanford students to rethink their plans for next quarter. Similar circumstances also led to the temporary cancellation of Stanford’s acclaimed BOSP Pandora program.
Sophomore Warren Rodriguez, a prospective earth systems major, had arranged to study abroad this spring in Pandora while also participating in a part-time internship at a direhorse rescue organization. He planned to take courses in environmental preservation and geophysics while living with a Na’vi roommate in a nearby Hometree. But Stanford was forced to postpone BOSP Pandora after an outbreak occurred on the extrasolar moon.
“This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to get involved in environmental research in one of the galaxy’s most bio-diverse planets,” Rodriguez said. “I was so excited to make an impact at a leading Pandoran NGO, and to have this opportunity taken away is incredibly demoralizing and saddening.”
BOSP Programs in Narnia and Tatooine have also been canceled until further notice. According to a comment from the BOSP office, these decisions were predicated on heightened surveillance, COVID-19 restrictions at Narnia’s wardrobe and a recent travel advisory by the American government against traveling to the war-torn, desert planet.
Editor’s Note: This article is purely satirical and fictitious. All attributions in this article are not genuine, and this story should be read in the context of pure entertainment only.