Beth Albiston

What was your overseas opportunity?

Cultural heritage of Mexico and Violence, Dignity and Social Justice.

What interested you in an overseas opportunity?

Travelling has always been something that I wanted to do and the opportunity to go to Mexico and learn about the cultural identity over there seemed like an amazing chance to do that.

How did you find out about the opportunity?

My lecturer informed us about this opportunity and suggested I apply.

 What did you gain from your experience?

I met people from all around the world and made lots of new lifelong friends. Being able to travel the country over the summer allowed me to see the true essence of Mexico and changed my perspective on the country that I had initially expected it to be like.

Where there educational elements to your opportunity, what did you learn? E.g., learn a new language, teach a session, participate in a short course?

Additionally the study surrounding world peace and femicide in Mexico opened my eyes to current problems in the world that I had not had the opportunity to look into prior to this experience.

What has been the most memorable moment of your experience?

The student ambassadors who were assigned to us became very close friends and now I have connections with people from all across the globe. This has given me more opportunities to travel and visit new places to reunite with the people I met over there.

 Has this experience enhanced your employability?

This experience has given me an insight into the education system in North America and allowed me to appreciate the cultural diversity within a classroom setting. As someone who intends to go into an education related profession, I think this will make me stand out as a candidate when applying for jobs.

Has this experience led to further opportunities for you?

Absolutely! The things we learned about on the course were very hard hitting topics that peaked my interest in equality for women in places where the gap between men and women are much larger than in our country. I now want to further explore these issues in other areas of the world to look for common denominators as to why certain countries suffer with this issue more than others.

 What do you hope to do when you graduate?

I want to go on to become a teacher in a primary school and, though these issues are for much more mature students, I still think the lessons I have learned will impact the way I teach.

Would you recommend this experience to other students and what advice would you give?

I would definitely recommend this experience to anyone who is given the opportunity to do so. I met so many incredible people from all across the world, as well as people from Edge Hill who I would never have met if it had not been for Mexico. Although being that far away from home felt difficult at times, it made the experience so much more beneficial as I was fully immersed in the culture.