Hidden Hills : Aspiring Doctor, 17, Experiences Oxford

Sure, he visited Stonehenge and took in a play by the Royal Shakespeare Company during a month in England this summer. But it wasn’t a vacation for 17-year-old Kristopher Wagner-Porter.

The Hidden Hills teen-ager spent July studying medicine at the historic University of Oxford, part of an 11-year-old program that draws more than 300 students from around the world for a month of academic enrichment.

“It was like being at college,” Kristopher said in an interview from Harvard-Westlake School in Studio City, where he began his senior year last week.

Like a university, students enrolled in the Oxford Tradition selected majors and minors from a field including international relations, art history, drama, medicine, philosophy and photography. An aspiring physician, Kristopher was named the most outstanding student among the more than two dozen in his introduction to medicine course.

“It was a great honor,” he said. “I was very happy with it.”

Kim Warner, associate director of the New York-based program, said the Oxford Tradition offers students both an academically challenging program and a variety of cultural experiences as well. The $4,000 program is open to all applicants, although Warner said most participants are from North America.

“We’re constantly immersing them with culture,” she said, noting that students were treated to field trips, museum tours and guest speakers. “They’re getting an experience not found in high schools.”

Although his father is a record producer and his mother a composer, Kristopher said he hopes for a career in medicine. He plans to attend a premed program at UCLA, Stanford or UC Berkeley next year with an eye on becoming a surgeon or virologist.

“I like the excitement of being able to help people,” he said. “It’s a noble profession.”