Over the holiday break, a few of our St. Paul’s Foundation scholars also participated in summer courses in universities across the globe. We shared the experience of two of our scholars, Claudia and Enzo, in a previous post, and this time we go over the adventures of Gregório and João Gabriel in the UK.
João Gabriel went to Oxford, one of the oldest academic institutions in the world, to dig deeper into a huge passion of his: Maths! During the programme, João got to learn more about mathematical concepts such as Topology, Group Theory and Number Theory. Throughout the course, he had to deliver two presentations and explain these complex topics in a simplified way to an audience that was not familiar with them.
João affirms that the summer course experience “brought me perspectives I would’ve never had before and got me a lot closer to my own life goals. Getting to meet the professors and counsellors showed me that my dream of studying Maths in a big university isn’t such a distant dream.”
Aside from being an immersive experience that allows pupils to further their studies in their area of interest, the summer course is also a cultural exchange with students from all over the world. João felt really welcomed at his programme, with students from countries such as India, Canada, Azerbaijan and Italy. For him, “this experience gave me a bigger worldview; I could learn more about other cultures and share a few of my own customs with others. The summer course brought me friendships that, certainly, I’ll keep for the rest of my life and that were extremely hard to say goodbye to”.
He also got to explore the city of Oxford, as well as London, connecting with his new friends, practising sports and having fun! João recalls that “these two weeks were the best experience of my life. To see something that felt so distant a while ago become true, brings so much happiness to me and to my family.”
As for Gregório, he spent the latter half of his summer holidays in Folkestone, England, taking an international relations course at Earlscliffe, a UNESCO school. During the two-week period, Gregorio made friends from all over the world and also got to explore England, visiting cities such as Ashford, London and Chertsey.
Gregório chronicles that “my professors were all highly capacitated instructors and that could be cited as experts in their areas, which made my learning experience even richer. I also believe that having classmates that were just as eager to learn as I was, impacted positively in the exchange of knowledge and in the success achieved in the projects we developed.”
Like João, Gregório also highlights the cultural aspect of the course. “I became friends with people from places like Japan, China, Czech Republic, Albania… These interactions allowed me to learn more about different societies across the globe, opening my mind and having a great contribution in my journey to become a global citizen.”
To continue to bring unique experiences like these, the St. Paul’s Foundation supports and funds summer courses for our scholars. Visit our website to know how to contribute for more transformative opportunities in our scholarship programme.