OPPORTUNITY FUNDS-BULGARIA

For High School Juniors and Seniors

Success Stories

Gabriela Radeva

AY2016-17 Opportunity Student

St. Patriarch Evtimii High School, Plovdiv

Loughborough University, UK

International Relations

My name is Gabriela Radeva. I am a second-year International Relations student at Loughborough University, United Kingdom. The University is quite large with 17 000 students, mostly undergraduates. It is located in Loughborough, a small university town in the Midlands. I personally love the town because even though it does offer the great opportunity to go out and spend time with friends, it still remains quiet and perfect for people who want to focus on their studies.

The university offers the best student experience in the UK, starting with the Loughborough Student’s Union (LSU), which is a great place to take part in a variety of societies and feel like you belong. The Careers Network helps students with their career-related issues, whether it is a CV or job prospect opportunities. Because of the large campus there is a shuttle bus that takes students from the LSU to our own STEM lab, fitness facilities and the Pilkington Library. The library is a four storey building with tons of study places for individual or group work. The library provides a wide range of courses to enhance student skills (Microsoft Office, essay writing, studying, etc.) and in order to make the student experience within the library easier, there is a subject specialist in each area who helps students find what they are looking for.

International Relations is a great field for people like me who still struggle to find the right place. It gives a lot of career opportunities depending on the modules students choose for themselves. Loughborough gives the opportunity to choose 1 optional module each semester in the first year as well as the second and third. They are usually from the Business, Language and Media departments. My field, unlike others, gives the opportunity to choose all modules in the second-year with only one core module per semester. This helps shape the field in a way you want it to be. However, since it is in the Politics and International Relations department, module choices are of course focused on those fields. I personally will be pursuing a career in the Public Relations field.

The Opportunity Funds and Snejana Teneva helped me a lot with the application process when I was applying to universities all over the USA. Their support helped navigate my applications in the right direction, to the right university and to the most suitable subject area for me.

My fellow Opportunity Funds students also contributed to the overall experience. We have shared each other’s knowledge whether it is through reviewing each other’s essays or helping one another with the Math or English sections of the SAT.

I am yet to achieve my dreams, but it is needless to say that the experience that the Opportunity Funds program offered me has played a vital role in choosing the right path for my education regardless of the fact that I am not currently studying in the USA.

Opportunity Funds is a once-in-a-lifetime experience that not only contributes to a student’s pre-university preparation, but also helps boost their confidence and teamwork skills. The connections I have made through the program with both my fellow students and Ms. Teneva have proven to be long-lasting and of immense value.

Disclaimer: The text is published in its original and unedited version.

    Visit to Nottingham     Opportunity student (first from right to left)

First snow on the Loughborough University campus