So do you have any plans for after you graduate?

"So do you have any plans for after you graduate?"

Now that is the question. Let’s not fool ourselves finalists. I’m sure you’ll all agree with me, when I say that this is the question we both dread and are continuously bombarded with. My response?

“To recover.”

No, I’m not joking. It never ceases to amaze me how other finalists (albeit from other degree courses) seem to have managed to apply to every grad-scheme and job application under the sun, with their summers fully booked out with internships. I’m not going to lie to you, whilst I can assure you that studying two languages at university level is no easy task, final year is currently consuming every last brain cell and ounce of energy left in my body. With endless translation work, grammar work, language essays, literature essays, oral presentations, online portfolios, amongst the infinite novels I’ve had to read on a weekly basis in both Spanish and Italian, I have been devoting all my efforts to just getting through this year and to the best of my abilities. Despite being a self-confessed perfectionist, I just can’t understand where people are getting the time for those tiresome trips back and forward to London, or Skype interviews. But never mind, each to their own.

Therefore whilst my plans for next year have certainly not made it to the top of my agenda, I do have some rather exciting plans for summer lined up. Anyone who knows me, will tell you that whilst at times I can be the most indecisive person you will ever meet (yes, this is why I ended up doing four a-levels as opposed to three) I can also be the most impulsive (Chile anyone?). Therefore, in a rather impromptu Claudia decision, after having sufficiently stalked through the photos of my friend who spent last summer teaching English to Africa, within the space of an hour, I had pretty much researched everything there was to know about Warwick in Africa, decided that this was, without a doubt, how I wanted to spend this summer, and drafted up my application.

And who would have guessed it? After getting invited to the Warwick in Africa selection event which involved me preparing and carrying out a short lesson activity (to a group of rather ‘disruptive’ assessors), an interview, and group activity, I was offered the position as a Student teacher of English in Soweto, a small township in Johannesburg South Africa for six weeks. I think it was safe to say I was ecstatic.

So what is Warwick in Africa and what exactly will I be doing?

Warwick in Africa is essentially an incredible program that helps both students and their teachers across 27 partner schools in South Africa, Tanzania and Ghana. In the last 10 years, the programme has reached over 280,000 learners, and this summer, along with my team of eight, it will be my mission to increase this number even more. As Student Teachers we will be teaching at some of the poorest schools in Africa, whilst introducing new teaching methods in order to inspire lasting change in the classroom. The programme is run entirely on donations and just £10 alone will teach one child for a whole month.

Moreover, as student teachers each of us as have a personal target of £1000 to raise by June that will go directly towards the project’s costs.

So how am I doing? Not too bad actually. Having set up a JustGiving page alone (do feel free to visit and donate) I have been able to raise a fair amount. What’s more, the last week of term saw a lot of this taking place…

Just because, you know, there isn’t enough to in the final week of term, with the help of the legendary brownies and remarkable publicity skills of our fabulous Hispanic Studies secretary, Elaine, along with my wonderful helpers; I decided to put on a bake sale in Humanities.

Orange buttercream cake, butterfly cake, chocolate cake, lemon drizzle cake…essentially all the cake.

Truth be told, this did involve me not only baking for the entire previous day, but spending most of the Tuesday trying to tempt essentially everyone who walked through the doors of humanities that cake was definitely the way forward.

However, I must admit it was a roaring success. Managing to raise £114 plus one Croatian Kuna (!?) that day alone from just cake, it didn’t stop there. Of course I proceeded to take cake to my following lectures, bringing my bake sale bucket total up to £140.91. Not bad for some cake!

So there we have it. With endless injections and other preparations underway, just a few days after graduation (eeek) I will be off to Africa. No, it isn’t exactly an internship, but it my opinion, it is something infinitely better.