I was fortunate to travel to Istanbul for two weeks over the summer to attend a Turkish language school in preparation for my final year. I am grateful to Pembroke for awarding me the Alan Jones Travel Prize which was invaluable in making possible what was a rewarding and memorable trip.

Through support from the George Bredin Travel Fund, I attended a departmental field course in tropical forest ecology. I joined four professors and about twenty other second-year undergraduates to fly to Borneo in May of 2023. I never would have had the confidence to undertake my latest project without the practical skills and research independence the Borneo trip helped build.

Through support from the Alan Jones fund, I stayed in Rabat, Morocco for three weeks. There, I completed a one-on-one advanced Arabic course at the Center for Cross-Cultural Learning. The fund meant that I could afford these one-on-one classes, something which has been invaluable for going into my final year of a French and Arabic degree.

In allowing myself to fully engage in the topic, including meeting with some of the leading researchers in the field, I found the sense of work greatly diminished.