Heading off to university is a time often met with both excitement and apprehension, but when you decide to head to another country to study, the dial gets turned up especially with regards to financing your studies. Heading off to boarding school certainly forges a certain resolve, so it wasn’t too unusual to consider heading to the United States to study, after leaving CH in 2005. With a year of transferable university courses under my belt, and having worked to pay a good portion of my way, I headed off to beautiful Charleston, South Carolina in 2008 to study economics.

Through working two part time jobs, including one as a student fundraiser, and an ‘overload’ schedule, I was able to complete my studies by 2010, thanks in a big part to the interest free loan I received from the BSB, which I’m pleased to have now repaid. The support of the BSB gave me the breathing room financially to take a step back and see where I could add to my resume and set myself up for a career. With the time gained I was able to take on an additional internship in the economics department and also run our rugby club, two experiences that have paid dividends through experiences I’ve drawn on in my early career.

Now living in Washington, DC, I’ve drawn upon my early experience in fundraising and head up the fundraising team of a national non-profit that ironically focuses on the American Founding! I’m extremely grateful to the BSB for enabling me to take advantage of the various opportunities that would otherwise have not been available to me, and in time I look forward, as my means allow, to doing the same for future leavers.