A HAT-TRICK (PLUS) FOR GRACE

Grace Panti-Amoa would be the first to agree that 2007 was a very successful year. Back in Leeds after a very challenging year of voluntary work in Germany under the Freiwillige Soziale Jahr (FSJ) scheme, a programme of voluntary work in the social sector, Grace settled down for the last lap of her Joint Honours B.Sc. degree in Statistics and German. FSJs are regulated and certified by the German government and include compulsory training as well as voluntary work per se. Grace’s pre-departure research led her to a Christian organisation, the PAIS Project http://www.paisproject.com/ , which specialises in youth and school work. Grace was placed in Neumünster, but lived in a small village about 10 km away. Her role as a youth worker took her into a range of institutions, from grammar schools to special needs schools, where she supported classroom and extra-curricular activities and ran after-school clubs and workshops. Some, but by no means all, of these activities, involved teaching English (she was also called upon at one stage to set up unicycle tuition, a skill she did not herself possess at the outset!). Grace’s full programme also included church activities several evenings a week and at weekends.

Grace Panti-Amoa

All students of German at Leeds record their year abroad activities in an online weblog via the German Department’s LeedsAbroad website. Grace’s year in Germany equipped her with a wealth of experience when she decided to apply for a City & Guilds Licentiateship in Personal Skills (LCGI). This is an additional degree-level qualification offered, uniquely among university language departments, by the German Department at Leeds. Recently retired Senior Lecturer Dr Syd Donald has been preparing candidates for the LCGI for the past 12 years, and in 2007 a total of ten German Finalists gained the award, which entails compiling a portfolio containing their year abroad weblog and end-of-year report, references and other supporting material from their employer, along with a reflective statement in which they analyse how their personal and transferable skills have developed during their placement year.

Summer 2007 brought a hat-trick of successes for Grace. The first good news was the offer of an actuarial traineeship with global HR and investment giants Mercer . The company had evidently backed a winner, for in June came Grace’s Final degree result: a joint First in Statistics and German. And to cap it all, the autumn brought the news that she had been awarded a coveted Medal for Excellence by the City & Guilds Institute.

Like every City & Guilds awarding institution, Leeds University is entitled to nominate one of its LCGI candidates for consideration under the Medals for Excellence scheme. The University does not make nominations every year, but in 2007 the Examinations Committee had no hesitation in putting Grace’s name forward. This makes Grace only the second-ever nominee by the University of Leeds , the other being another German graduate, Catherine Irving, in 2005. And like Catherine, Grace was awarded a Medal “for outstanding performance in the Senior Award LCGI sector”. This is a great honour at national level, and is marked by an award ceremony at a celebration lunch at the Royal Armouries, Leeds, and a gala dinner in London.

Grace’s sponsor, Dr Syd Donald, now a Life Fellow of the University, also received a certificate (for the second time) “in recognition of the high standards of teaching and training at his centre”

And finally: for a number of years now, the Department of German at Leeds has been sponsored by international management consultants KPMG, to present an annual prize for student achievement. In keeping with the Department’s long-standing commitment to promoting personal development in our students, W have decided to dedicate this prize to the student who has shown the greatest evidence of personal development during their Year Abroad, and guess who was the 2007 winner!