Henry Ravenhall, 2013-2014 in Pau, Bordeaux, France

What do you study at King’s?
French and History BA

Describe your teaching and learning experience
I was working in three collèges (11-15) in a small city in the southwest of France. I taught a variety of classes across all the ages, however I mostly taught quatrième and troisième — the oldest year groups of the collège. I really enjoyed teaching these lessons and I was given a lot of freedom in what I could teach to which students. Unless the teacher told me beforehand that he/she wanted me to tackle a certain subject, I was able to design my lessons with total autonomy.

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Cory Prestion, Summer 2013 at Renmin University of China, Beijing

What do you study at King’s?
Philosophy BA

Where did your Global Summer Experience take place?
Renmin University of China (RUC), Beijing, China

How did you apply?
The initial application process was not particularly long, it involved filling in an application form, writing a short personal statement (500 words) and obtaining an academic reference. This was so that the study abroad office could narrow down who would be funded for a place at RUC. The study abroad office were available to answer questions.

Once this process was over, and the office had chosen 6 students to submit as applicants to the university we then filled in the RUC online application form. This was followed by a request for a hard copy of the form and photocopies of passport and (if applicable) previous visa application successes to China.

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Soumia Arif, Summer of 2015 at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China

What do you study at King’s?
Geography BA

Where did your Global Summer Experience take place?
Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China

How did your Global Summer Experience influence you?

My time in China shaped me into becoming a more open-minded individual. I learnt very early on that things that were done differently, were just that: different, not necessarily wrong. It was appreciating this and broadening my perspective that I in turn learnt so much more about Chinese culture and cultural appropriation in general. My Global Summer Experience influenced me to embrace unfamiliar things with even more enthusiasm and optimism than a previously had!

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Lily Scotcher, 2012-2013 at Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Spain (Edith Baer grant recipient)

Studying Hispanic Studies at King’s College London meant I had the opportunity to spend my third year abroad in either Spain or Latin America and I opted for Barcelona as I liked the fact that it was still a large city like London, although slightly smaller and it also has a beach. I found it easy to adapt to Barcelona since it is a large cosmopolitan city like London, although slightly smaller. I was awarded the Edith Baer award to enrich my experience on my year abroad and I mostly put this towards travel within the region I was living in and the rest of Spain.

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Daniela Duhur, 2013-2014 at University of Helsinki, Finland

Studying

My academic experience abroad was not too different to my experience at King’s. I selected my modules before I left, but once there found that switching things around was much more flexible than the system at King’s. My class sizes were pretty small, none larger than 40, and the smallest being 5, which again is similar to the Theology department at King’s since it tends to not be the most popular subject to study. Assesment was a lot more relaxed than in England, and I think that was the main difference. Never have I experience such a casual approach to exams. In England throughout school and university the examination culture is much more intense, you are subjected to study leave and have a long time to prepare for pretty intense exams, for example having a 3 hour exam is pretty common. However in Finland exams were more casual and much shorter.

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