My advice to anyone considering an NCP scholarship would be “do it”.
Do your absolute best to win the scholarship because it will be the most transformative,
professional and academic experience of your life.
My name is Ellie Wyatt, I'm a penultimate year Arts/Law student from Monash University
and I'm one of the new Colombo Plan’s China scholars.
I’d always been very interested in the Indo-Pacific region.
Before coming to China I had worked in Malaysia, in KL, but I’d never really thought too
much about China specifically until I came to China on a backpacking trip.
I was amazed by the richness of the culture here and the diversity.
The thing that attracted me most to studying in China was the fact that an understanding
of China linguistically, professionally and culturally is increasingly becoming important.
The more you learn about China the more you understand how important and increasingly
so it is on the world stage today.
The thing that attracted me most to Shanghai in particular was the fact that there are
such a diverse range of career opportunities here, probably more than in any other city
in China.
Shanghai is great in that it has that real sense of history.
It originally started off as a small fishing village and it became this enormous commercial
hub that it is today.
There are two things about the new Colombo Plan that make it fundamentally different
from other scholarships and university exchanges.
The first would be the fact that you’re very much encouraged to, and supported to
take on internships.
I completed an internship with King & Wood Mallesons, which is an Australian-Chinese
law firm based all over Australia, and China also.
I was able to try my hand at a number of different projects, mostly assisting either Australian
or other foreign clients with market entry into China, joint venture initiatives, business
development, understanding the legal context in China.
I was working in a team of both foreign lawyers as well as Chinese lawyers, so it was a fantastic
experience.
Through the New Colombo Plan I've had exposure to Engineering students, Science students,
Math students, Computer Science students, that I might not have come across independently
of the New Colombo Plan.
So I think that the network itself is one of the best things about the New Colombo Plan.
It’s been very easy making friends here.
You constantly meet people on campus either in your classes or at the canteen.
There’s a load of expat groups.
ACYA is one of them.
I'm involved with ACYA.
A-C-Y-A stands for the Australia China Youth Association.
So that’s an apolitical, not-for-profit organisation.
As president I've been working in a small team of the executive here in Shanghai, which
aims to promote the relationship between Australia and China and we regularly run social events
and meet-up as well as language exchange, speaker panels, career development events,
educational forums, that sort of thing.
I think Shanghai is the kind of city that it’s very easy to not speak Chinese, but
I also think there’s plenty of opportunities to speak Chinese if you're brave enough to
try.
I meet up with my language buddy, maybe once, twice a week.
In class, we speak only in Chinese and the teachers address us only in Chinese.
I think young people greatly contribute to strengthening the Australia-China relationship,
mostly by learning about the other culture.
For example, by studying in China, I’ve gained enormous understanding about Chinese
society, the economy, politics, culture, that I wouldn't have had prior to arriving here
and I think I could say the same for a Chinese student studying in Australia.
I think those relationships become lifelong relationships.
The most important way you can create understanding between two different nations is by people
to people connections.
The experience working and studying in China has given me a breadth of experience that
I couldn’t have gained simply by completing my studies in Australia.
After I finished my studies, I aim to become qualified in Australia.
Ideally I’d like to be seconded at some point to either one of the larger cities in
China or perhaps Hong Kong, to expand on my network and skills in law in Asia.
I think the thing I'll miss most about Shanghai is the people I’ve met here, because you
do form such a strong community and you meet people from all over China, and all over the
world, and all over Australia, and you’re sort of thrown together in this slightly chaotic,
enormously challenging experience.
And you share these experiences that you couldn’t have had anywhere else in the world.
So I think I’m going to miss people most.