ESG Report 2022 single pages web - Flipbook - Page 49
Ruby Mercer
Oscar Seecharan
BA (Hons) French and Spanish, Year 2
BA (Hons) Russian and Chinese, Year 3
My second year at Manchester has really flown by. I have
done a range of modules which I really loved, such as
'Oriental Paintings in 19th Century Spain' and 'Visual
Cultures'. I even got to create a video essay as one of my
final exams, and was super proud of myself for completing
it – even more so when I received my results!
This summer I was lucky enough to do an internship
at RWS, working as part of the corporate team. Those
weeks spent working on live projects truly confirmed that
translation is the right career path for me; I have learnt so
much about the industry and how things work, and I am
so grateful for the opportunity. I would like to say a huge
thank you to everyone there for making my experience
so lovely. I enjoyed it so much, and all the feedback I have
received has helped my confidence massively.
I’m now looking forward to my year abroad and am both
excited and nervous to be moving away.
I know it will be a challenge, but I know it
will be an amazing life experience and
I plan to make the most of it. Thank
you for making my scholarship
possible, and for opening up all
these opportunities for me.
Jake Rooney
BA (Hons) French Studies, Year 3
I spent the past year abroad, and it was arguably this year
that my scholarship made the biggest difference for me.
I lived in a small town in the south of France and was keen
to explore the rest of the country; thanks to your funding,
I was able to visit a total of 14 different regions and could
really maximise my cultural experience by travelling and
meeting people from all over the country. I also spent two
months in Heidelberg, where your support was once again
vital – this time to cover unexpected costs of cancelled
flights and up-front payments for housing, which I would
not have been able to afford otherwise.
I am now looking forward to coming back to campus and
having in-person teaching again. It will also be great to
see other students and to exchange stories about our
experiences whilst living abroad. Following the completion
of my studies in 2023, I would like to gain a teaching
qualification to become a language teacher.
For my year abroad, I chose to go to Kazan in Russia
for the same reason that many other students did: it is
sufficiently far enough from Moscow and St Petersburg
to provide a more ‘authentic’ experience. While I was
there, conversational practice was largely limited to
everyday topics, so I found that books offered a wider
range of themes and vocabulary for me to learn. For
example, I read The Master and Margarita in its original
language for the first time, and would write and re-write
new vocabulary from its pages to help me remember
them.
My life has changed as a result of that trip. It made me
more confident and willing to expose myself to different
areas of life, and to get started using my linguistic
knowledge in more ‘real’ situations. Over the last few
months, I’ve continued my work with books and have
been translating a novel from Russian into English. It is a
difficult and time-consuming process, but it is rewarding
and satisfying to see the end product.
My scholarship has been invaluable because it has
motivated me to maximise the opportunities available
to me. Involvement from RWS has also made
me aware of and interested in the career
opportunities available to me after
university. Thank you for giving me
this sense of purpose and for
boosting my self-esteem.
As we look forward to celebrating five years of the
consolidated RWS Campus programme in 2023, we aspire
to reach a wider audience across expanded locations
where we did not previously have a footprint, for example,
in South East Asia, the Pacific and Africa, and support
even more students in their path into the localisation
industry. It is clear to us that as a global company we have
a responsibility to contribute to society. We want to have
a positive impact on the people with whom we interact, in
every community. The RWS Campus programme is one of
the ways we make this happen.
Once again, thank you so much for your
support. It really does remove the
financial barriers that prevent
students like me from maximising
our opportunities.
SOCIAL RWS — ESG Report 2022
49
