Driving forward with international development

With experience working as an English teacher in Cape Town, Aya sparked a passion for international development and moved abroad to Manchester to continue this journey.

She's now planning to take a year out to work as a Researcher in Eastern Africa and continue on her mission to help eradicate global inequalities.

My name is Aya and this is my Stellify story.

I'm very passionate about international development and I have just completed my degree in this subject.

The reason I decided to study this was due to my experience volunteering as an English teacher in Cape Town and I’m particularly interested in understanding and learning how we can eradicate global inequalities and promote human rights.

Before coming to Manchester I studied at a university in the Netherlands but after a semester I realised I wanted something different. I then made the decision to move abroad to Manchester as I wanted to study at a bigger University with a vibrant academic community. To me, Stellify is an example of one of these opportunities that I was looking for.

Aside from undertaking the Grand Challenges, I spent a lot of time in the first year as part of the international 16 project at the international society.

After graduation I'm going to take a year out and experience different internships starting with one at the British Institute in Eastern Africa as a Researcher which will be the next step of my journey in international development.

If you're looking for different opportunities, look around and try new things because you never know where it may take you.