With Autumn Term just around the corner, what can be expected from the Surval Experience? Certainly a great deal to look forward to, a cultural immersion and multi-cultural exploration with so much to discover about oneself and others.
Anastasiia (2020, Russia) joined Surval Summer Camp 2016 from Russia; she returned that September for IGCSE Grade 9 and completed her IGCSE and A Level programme here.
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Anastasiia was Student of The Year September 2017 and led Surval Student Voice last year. Anastasiia has recently celebrated excellent A Level results and received an unconditional offer from her first choice university the University of London, King’s College to read Management and Modern Languages with a year abroad. She says,
“I remember very vividly my first day in the Summer Camp 4 years ago when I had no choice but to gesticulate, point and draw to the staff what I wanted to say because I didn’t speak a single word of English... It took me a lot of courage to open my mouth and say anything at that time.
I am proud that I can now more or less express myself in three different languages, which would certainly not be the case had Surval not placed great importance on the language and cultural aspects throughout our learning journey.
It is incredible how many different nationalities we embrace as the Surval community. I’ve been able to get to know and become friends with people from every inhabited continent on the globe. We go to classes with amazing teachers who come from different backgrounds just like us and we subsequently acquire the skill of communication, because that's one of the biggest variants from country to country, and person to person. This helped me break the patterns of bias or preconceptions and I realised that cultural immersion is a cure for hate, ignorance and stereotypes. I now feel an increased desire for all the world to live in peace and with access to the necessary ingredients for a good life.
I will never forget these 4 years because the moments that I cherish a lot are the definition of who I am today.“