Starting ARU as an international student

My journey at ARU has been a huge part of who I am as a person today. I walked into the ARU Cambridge campus in 2017. I was a commuting international student without any idea of what I would do apart from studying my course. I had zero work experience, no friends in this foreign country, and had never used public transportation in my life. Everything went wrong on my first visit to the Cambridge campus. I got lost, soaked in rain, my phone died and I had left my wallet at home.

That incident gave me the desire to do better. It gave me the courage to go out of my way to greet strangers. I started noticing opportunities around me, opportunities I hadn’t seen before because being in a foreign environment was nerve-wracking for me. Shortly after that, I started working as a Student Ambassador which helped me improve my communication skills. I started getting involved with my faculty’s Awards Gap Working group, became a welcome buddy, got elected as a K-Pop Society Committee member, took up an internship at the ARU Library, and finally got elected as your Vice President Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences [an elected role in the Students’ Union]

"Since my first day on campus in 2017, I’ve never looked back. Because no matter how tired, worried, confused, or scared I was – I always found help. Staff members were very supportive during my time as a student and as a VP I’ve realised more of what they do to support students behind the scenes. This realisation made me decide my stay at ARU and I will now be pursuing my postgraduate studies in Cambridge"!

By Fatima Lakhani
BA (Hons) English Literature student