Atika

Before the Through The Looking Glass programme I was interested in studying Biochemistry at university. However, after attending the one-week work experience in October which allowed us to visit various firms in the city, I became more interested in insurance and risk. This led me to look into BA International Relations and BA Politics, which introduced me to the university where I am now a student, SOAS, University of London.

I attended a three-day Politics summer school at SOAS, which was just enough time to let me fall in love with the institution. On the second day, we were given a Burmese taster class by Dr. Watkins, which he ended with a few details about linguistics – as a languages lover, this really interested me. As soon as I returned home, I did my research on Linguistics and emailed Dr. Watkins.
I am now at SOAS studying BA Arabic and Linguistics, a course I don’t think I would currently be studying if it was not for Through The Looking Glass, which triggered the described chain of events.

Alongside my studies, I am an ambassador for Routes into Languages, a government-funded project to inspire students across the country to learn languages in schools, colleges, and universities. I am also Team v Leader, a programme powered by vInspired which recruits 18-25 year old volunteers to act on three campaigns over nine months. The third and final campaign will come to an end in May 2015 and I will be starting my Social Impact Summer Internship in June after I attend a week-long residential to kick off my year as a member of Campaign Bootcamp.