We reported last year that Kathryn Parker had been chosen as one of only one hundred school leavers nationally to become a member of the Prime Minister's Global Fellowship. She has now returned from her travels and records her experiences.
Last summer, after an intensive selection process, I become a Prime Minister's Global Fellow and left for China for a six week visit. On our second day we travelled to China's most iconic symbols, the Great Wall, Tiananmen Square and the Olympic buildings. Language classes shortly began and I soon felt confident being able to introduce myself, buy clothes, order food and ask for directions. I am now on a gap year and enrolling in Chinese lessons at my local university. In addition to being a fascinating language, Chinese really widens job prospects as many multinational businesses have outsourced producion to China.
In Shanghai, I started my internship at the auditing firm KPMG. Not quite work experience, our aim was to gain an insight into global business and KPMG's social responsibility. We found that KPMG had many volunteer programmes in disadvantaged communities and were working hard to improve their environmental record.
The highlight of my time there was being taken to a volunteer centre and teaching English songs and games to migrant children, all of whom were scarily proficient in English. Unfortunately the last two weeks did not quite go to plan due to the swine flu outbreak so we spent just three days with our host family.
However, I still felt that I learnt a lot and had a great time with my host Sunshire who took me to Karaoke and to her favourite restuarant with some of her friends.
The whole experience was amazing and meeting other Fellows who all had very different experiences was great preparation for university. I know a lot more about China, the issues the country is facing and how it will be playing more of a role on the world stage in future. I would certainly recommend this programme to all enterprising sixth formers accross the country.
Kathryn Parker
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