We welcome this guest post from Shani Barwick, a current LLM student who attended the pre-LLM summer school last year and returned this year to discuss the LLM with prospective students.
“It was a very good year!”
Looking back at my recent return visit to Paris as an LLM Ambassador has reminded me of the song made famous by Frank Sinatra, which in turn has inspired this piece.
I graduated from Kent in 2013 with an LLB and found myself unsure of what my future path was. Indeed, as a mature student having returned to education after an extended “gap year”, I had faced the unknown a number of times. Thus, I applied for a place on the Pre-LLM course in Paris, hoping that it might give me an insight into possible avenues I could follow.
The Pre-LLM course inspired me to apply to study a Masters at Kent. I was lucky to obtain a fee waiver scholarship and become an LLM Ambassador: a small commitment, meaning that on top of my studies I would participate in promoting the course to future students. This has included Skype calls, Facebook posts and open days. An additional benefit of the role has been the confidence I have gained in talking to others about the course and my own particular fields of interest.
The additional bonus of being an LLM ambassador came recently, when I was invited to attend this year’s Pre-LLM course in Paris, meet prospective masters’ students, and talk to them about my experiences. It was an opportunity that I jumped at.
We met our first group of students on the Wednesday morning (the last day of their course). Prior to meeting us, they had spent three days getting a taste of the LLM from our lecturers and their enthusiasm was evident, as was the inspiration they had for the subjects. We were able to sit with them and talk over lunch, about our experience, and answer questions.
On Thursday, we were able to meet the second group at the beginning of their course; they were equally enthusiastic and had many questions. They had not yet undertaken any lectures but from whatwe could tell, they were looking forward to the subjects and lectures ahead of them.
After this, we had some free time in Paris and following a recommendation by Dr Vicky Conway, we went to the Montparnasse cemetery. It was a short walk from the centreand in such a hectic city was an oasis of calm and serenity. It is also the final resting place of some of the thinkers and artists that I admire; such as Emile Durkheim, Camille Saint-Saens, and Simone De-Bouvieour, among others. The cemetery is filled with ornate graves, each a commemoration of the deceased and individual to them and their families’ memories.
The return visit to Paris was the culmination of a “very good year” for me; a year where I found a deeper academic interest in fields of law, attended the LLM conference and made a decision as to my future career aspirations.