Without this scholarship I simply couldn’t have afforded to continue to graduate studies. I was in fact calling the registrars to explain that I might have to turn down my place when I was first told I had been awarded funding – I cannot describe how truly grateful I felt in that moment and still feel today. A huge thank you to Pembroke and Julian Schild for the support, I wouldn’t be here without you!

I am incredibly grateful for this year in Oxford. My parents come from middle income immigrant families and to think that I could do something like this is still unfathomable to me. I hope someday to return. 

It was a bit of an adjustment to get used to both the tutorial teaching system and living so far from home, but after a few months Pembroke started feeling like home too. My academic study turned out to be manageable and incredibly interesting. 

I knew that Pembroke had such a great sense of community - and this is what I found to be true. Spending a year of my undergraduate degree abroad in England has allowed me to now call two universities home: Columbia and Oxford.