Catherine Ward, who recently graduated from Duke University, is a Rotary Scholar studying at the University of Cambridge. She is sponsored by Southwest Durham Rotary Club. Below is third update after having arrived in the U.K. See her earlier posts here, here and here.
An Update from Global Scholar Catherine Ward
“I haven’t seen my mother in three years, but I have her smile. Her smile is my smile. But when I get to talk to her she cries.” I was talking to a young man who sought asylum here unaccompanied from Eritrea, and of his family, he told me this. He was excited that I knew of Calais, the camp he spent time in where police twice broke his leg. He takes his English language study seriously. He has aspirations of gaining English fluency, working, and moving to London to be closer to the Eritrean Church there. He has local friends and always shows his teachers and social workers respect. He gets frustrated when other kids don’t show that sort of respect to adults and peers. My research is for children like him.
An Update from Rotary Scholar Catherine Ward
Catherine Ward, who recently graduated from Duke University, is a Rotary Scholar studying at the University of Cambridge. She is sponsored by Southwest Durham Rotary Club. Below is her first update after having arrived in the U.K.
I am writing after having been in the U.K. for less than a week. However, it has been a packed week, and I have quickly fallen in love with the University of Cambridge. I am a member of Pembroke College Cambridge, which was founded in 1347 and is the third oldest in Cambridge. Earlier this week, I matriculated to both the college and the university. Matriculation is a formal ceremony in which you wear traditional academical dress and sign your name as an official member of both the college and the university. I have attached a photo from my matriculation.
As a graduate ‘fresher,’ or new student, I have enjoyed learning more about university life from students already attending Cambridge. I have been grateful for the community atmosphere at my college – everyone has been incredibly welcoming. Moreover, I have enjoyed meeting with Rotary Scholars attending other colleges here at Cambridge. The Rotary community in East Anglia is quite strong, and I am doing my best to send the U.K. warm feelings from District 7710. The Cambridge Rutherford Club is hosting me during my time in the U.K.
I have begun my course, and during this term, which is called Michaelmas Term, I am preparing research on equity in education, a concept I am first probing philosophically before applying it to my interests in refugee youth. I have a spectacular supervisor, and I am taking a Research Methods Strand to enhance my research abilities. My MPhil group in the Education, Globalisation, and International Development track is a remarkably diverse bunch, with students from all around the world. I am excited to learn from individuals who come from different backgrounds than me over the course of this year.
I can not put my gratitude to District 7710 into words. I will do my best to serve as an ambassador of goodwill while here and to grow in a manner that will allow me to impact basic education and literacy in the future.