What inspired you to work for Immerse Education?
Immerse is a company that is proud of the work that they do. The academic programmes Immerse offers are truly inspiring and help connect students from all over the world with inspiring academics from top UK and US universities. I wanted to be a part of the company that helps students to expand their horizons and reach their academic goals.
In Cambridge as a tourist
Describe a typical day at work.
There is usually no one typical day, however a big part of my job on a daily basis consists of looking through the itinerary of each campus and working towards ticking off every event that is scheduled to happen.
The moment the student lands and is re-route to one of our campuses - my work begins and it is paramount that we give a fantastic first impression and continue with providing a high level of service throughout the student's stay. Which from my side means working though lots and lots of spreadsheets and making sure that all is confirmed, booked, and organized prior to the start of the summer.
What is your favorite part of your job?
The favorite part of my job is to visit our summer centers in July and August - when they are hustling and bustling with students, our pastoral staff and tutors. When you work on something for a year, it is both rewarding and inspiring to see it all come to life - students actively participating in the academic lessons and activities as well as making friends along the way.
Tutors teaching but also being inspired by the young and curious minds and the pastoral team putting together an unforgettable social programme. And then, when the summer ends - receiving positive feedback from both parents, students and our staff!
How do you use your education and international background in your current role?
Having worked as an educational advisor for a number of years and now joining Immerse as an Operations Manager gives me a great advantage, as I have seen the summer school industry form both sides - as a client/guardian and now as provider.
When putting together an operations plan for the year, discussing new ventures for the company, in my correspondence with tutors and mentors - I can give my input of what I know students as well as parents would be looking for when deciding on joining a programme like Immerse.
In Ireland on a work trip
Why should someone choose Immerse Education over competitors?
Immerse provides a very high level of service. We go through a very rigorous recruitment process for our seasonal staff to make sure only the most suitable people are employed and it takes us a whole year to put together a very rigorous and diverse programme together.
Our pastoral team working in our centers in Oxford and Cambridge all have an Oxbridge background and all of our Oxbridge tutors are as a minimum PhD students, with experience teaching on an undergraduate level.
What is your organization's mission and how do you continue to work toward it?
Our mission statement is to create transformative educational experiences for students across the world through interactive, skills-focused, technologically, and methodologically inventive instruction. We achieve this by hiring only the most suitable staff and offer a number of scholarships and bursaries to ambitious students to help achieve their goals.
What do you hope participants take away from your programs?
It might sound cliché, but these highly ambitious students are coming to our programmes from all over the world and we hope that will result in long-term friendships. Not only that, but the opportunity to live and study like an undergraduate student for 2 weeks will also hopefully help our students in deciding what subject they'd like to study further in university, and whether they'd like to study abroad at all.
If you could participate on one of your organization's programs, where would you go and what would you do?
If I were to participate in one of our programmes, I would probably choose to either enroll in an online 1:1 research programme, or participate in our new Career Insights Business Management programme in London.
The 1:1 programme would help me with polishing my research skills from a top tutor where we would be working on a topic that I would be able to choose myself and get expert guidance. Whereas the Career Insights programme would help me get an insight to the skills one needs to have in order to succeed in a very highly competitive industry.
In Sydney on a work trip where one of our summer programmes will be held in 2023
Why do you think learning a new language is important?
It has been scientifically proven that learning a new language has a very positive impact on the brain. The process of learning is like training a muscle, whereas using and switching from one language to the other helps keep the brain developed and less prone to deuteriations come old age.
Apart from the physical benefits, it is also plain practical to speak more than one language - for travel, being able to read material from a wider pool of sources, watch movies and read books in the original language and many more! Traveling broadens the mind and so, the more languages you know, the more open minded you become.
What does meaningful travel mean to you?
Meaningful travel needs to enrich, broaden horizons and make us want to travel even more. It is an opportunity to explore, learn and make an impact on someone's life, which can also be your own.
How is your company handling Covid protocols? What should participants know about your Covid readiness? How are you assisting participants with navigating the new travel landscape?
We have been very flexible throughout the pandemic and students were not worried in enrolling in our programmes because we have so many study options from them depending on last-minute changes either in their own country or where they were going.
The UK has currently lifted all of its Covid restrictions, however we will still be vigilant and will be working closely with all of our host colleges to put together a health and safety policy that will keep everyone safe. The safety and health of our students and staff are of the most importance and we are confident that we will be able to run a summer programme successfully.
