The St Augustine’s Priory Travel Scholarship.
Two of our St Augustine’s Priory 6 Travel Scholarship holders, Aoife and Jasmine, made good use of their award during the summer. These two enterprising young women were awarded this annual scholarship which goes towards an academic or outreach programme of the girls’ choice, with a view to enable the girls to look outwards and beyond the prescriptions of the A Level curriculum. Here, Aoife reports on their amazing journey of discovery:
‘In July, Jasmine and I travelled to Hanoi in Vietnam, to teach English. This was an amazing visit that was made possible, as well as supported, by the school through a scheme called the Travel Scholarship.
The Travel Scholarship is a great programme available to members of the Sixth Form, in which a grant is given to students who want to travel to other countries to volunteer their time. The process is difficult; it includes letter writing and a presentation to the board of senior officials. However, all of this work is certainly worth the incredible opportunities that the grant presents.
The school that we were assigned to in Vietnam was called Hanoi High Tech College. It was a great school that provided higher education to those living outside of the city centre. In fact, our daily drive past a lake to a secluded building certainly allowed us to explore outside of the traditional tourist areas of the capital. Whilst completing this project, I taught many classes of varying levels and ages. The students also had different reasons for wanting to learn English. Some are hoping to pass their IELTS to allow them to work in New Zealand, whereas for others it was simply a requirement of their course. Initially it was quite daunting to teach these classes, as the majority of students were our age or older, however this was not an issue. Great relationships were built with the students and teachers, and we have already been in contact with lots of them since our return home.
I would highly recommend the travel scholarship to those who are interested, as it is a great opportunity that allows students to expand their horizons and gain perspective. I had an amazing experience in Vietnam, but there was just one problem – it didn’t last long enough!’
To see more of Aoife and Jasmine’s visit to Vietnam, please go to this site, where a video of their experience is available to see:
Video link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uY5saJPObTI&feature=youtu.be
