Neesha Ghosh (India) – Class of 2013
As a recipient of the 2013 David Daiches Scholarship, I was most grateful for the opportunity to experience what the Scottish Universities’ International Summer School had to offer.
For a young woman with limited past experiences, this was an eye-opener and an immense opportunity to relate myself as a person and as an Indian with people from other and varied parts of the world. It is an experience worth cherishing for years to come, since I am terribly pleased that Edinburgh is the first major city I have visited other than Kolkata. The SUISS experience was wonderful and I wish I could be a part of it for one more time.
The SUISS team managed to deal with the text it selected for study with as much intensity as possible in the short time allotted. I study in a University (Jadavpur University), which provides equal opportunities for self-expression; however, the SUISS team was extremely special since it allowed me to interact with it not only in the tutorials but on other social occasions without any division between the lecturers, tutors, etc. It gave everybody the opportunity to speak their minds and accepted our perspectives with an open mindedness that was astonishing for me, since I come from a part of the world that is very different from Europe.
It has re-enforced the belief that there are people in the world who are more privileged than I, and yet are willing to understand and engage with me regarding problems that are not theirs. In short, I felt befriended, and I think that that friendship enhanced my academic as well as travel experience. I would like to thank SUISS with all my heart for this great experience.