Student Feature
Charlotte's Story - 2005 Participant
I attended LIYSF in 2005 and those two weeks showed me just how rewarding it is to be part of an international community with a shared excitement for science and it is an environment I have tried to recreate elsewhere ever since.
LIYSF gave me an insight into studying abroad and the confidence to apply to international institutions and my participation in LIYSF formed part of my university applications. I started studying physics at a Danish university. I carried out a research project on the role of ketone bodies in diabetic comas. I got placed first within the Danish Young Scientist competition and also got to present at a conference in Beijing, China. I was also involved in outreach activities and in my second year I taught the first year example classes for the physics courses.
I am currently studying third year physics at Pembroke College, Cambridge, UK and am very much enjoying the course and the student life. Next year I will be specialising, probably in either quantum physics or biophysics, and after that I hope to do a PhD. My best friend at Cambridge actually attended LIYSF the same year as I did, and we first got talking because we recognised each other from the forum. We often talk about the people we met during those two weeks in London and how rare it is to have so many amazing people congregated in one place. I have kept in touch with several of the people I met in London, some of them are at Cambridge and some study at American universities, and I am convinced that most of those people will go on to do great things.
The LIYSF programme was very good and challenging – the lectures, the student presentations and the visits (to Cambridge amongst other places) were inspirational – but what I mostly remember is how addictive an experience it is to be surrounded by such passionate people from all over the world. I would recommend LIYSF to young scientists across the globe.
Bev’s story – 1963 Participant
"Without the trip to England last summer I could never have had the chance to go again. I am sure that these two trips will affect the rest of my life.” This is my quote that appears in a 1964 publication of Women’s Bureau, Department of Labour, Canada.
I have not always seen the future so clearly, but at that time, for that moment I knew the effect LIYSF would have on my life.
I am sitting here in my home in Vancouver, BC and it’s 2009 and putting together a few items from the International Youth Science Fortnight, 1963 and 1964 that I attended. The first year I attended as a participant and the second year I was a Courier. I also travelled across Europe with 50 other attendees on a bus trip visiting science sites of interest and doing a heck of a lot of laughing and singing. When I was returning to Canada that summer I fell asleep, and when I woke I sat there near tears, all my friends from the bus ride were gone and I knew I would never see any of them again.
I took my first after school job to save money for that 1964 to London. My parents were very supportive of almost all I have done in my life, I have now lost them both, but their kindness has been a large part of who I am. Letting their daughter go to England in 1963 was very brave of them and going was very brave of me.
I never saw the Beatles that summer or the next summer! I left home and went to art school after I graduated from high school. My mother was a potter and my father’s brother is a retired commercial artist.
I am a photographer, shooting Rock and Roll photos, as well as holding down a day job, with the provincial government. I expect to retire, from the day job soon, and Rock and Roll, and photography will continue.