{"id":28290,"date":"2026-09-08T10:16:16","date_gmt":"2026-09-08T09:16:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/student-blog\/?p=28290"},"modified":"2026-09-08T10:16:16","modified_gmt":"2026-09-08T09:16:16","slug":"from-crying-at-the-airport-to-a-new-perspective-on-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/student-blog\/2026\/09\/08\/from-crying-at-the-airport-to-a-new-perspective-on-life\/","title":{"rendered":"From Crying at the Airport to a New Perspective on Life"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’m Amelia, a Business and Management student at Bournemouth University, and I recently travelled to Tanzania to volunteer at a childcare centre.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I’ve always loved working with children, from coaching gymnastics to gaining experience in primary schools, so volunteering in a childcare centre felt like the perfect opportunity. But I also wanted to challenge myself, become more independent and experience a different culture.<\/p>\n

With support from Bournemouth University’s Turing Scheme<\/a><\/strong>, I was able to make the trip possible. The funding helped towards major costs, including my flights, and without it, I wouldn’t have been able to afford such an incredible experience.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Despite being excited, I was absolutely terrified about travelling alone. I remember crying at the airport and wondering what could possibly go wrong. But once I arrived in Tanzania, I quickly settled in with the other volunteers and made friends with people from all over the world.<\/p>\n

The childcare centre was the part of the experience I was most excited about. I’ll never forget walking through the gates on my first day and being surrounded by children running towards me with huge smiles and open arms.<\/p>\n

During my time there, I supported the teachers with activities and spent time singing, dancing and helping the children learn numbers and letters. The centre had far fewer resources than I was used to seeing in the UK, which showed me how resourceful the teachers had to be and how much could be achieved with very little.<\/p>\n

Outside of volunteering, I explored more of Tanzania, visited local markets and Moshi Hot Springs, went on a sunset hike and eventually travelled to Zanzibar with friends I had met along the way.<\/p>\n

The biggest thing Tanzania gave me was perspective. Experiencing a completely different way of life made me appreciate things I had previously taken for granted, from reliable electricity and healthcare to a warm shower and my own bed.<\/p>\n

Most importantly, the experience gave me confidence. Travelling alone pushed me outside my comfort zone and made me realise that I’m capable of much more than I thought.<\/p>\n

I came home with new friends, unforgettable memories and a completely different perspective on the world.<\/p>\n

My advice to anyone thinking about applying for an international opportunity is simple: do it scared. You don’t have to feel ready to do something amazing.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’m Amelia, a Business and Management student at Bournemouth University, and I recently travelled to Tanzania to volunteer at a childcare centre. I’ve always loved working with children, from coaching gymnastics to gaining experience in primary schools, so volunteering in a childcare centre felt like the perfect opportunity. But I also wanted to challenge myself,… Read more » about From Crying at the Airport to a New Perspective on Life<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3668,"featured_media":28291,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[498,19],"tags":[1602,3509,811,911],"class_list":["post-28290","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business-management-marketing","category-featured","tag-business-and-management","tag-myvolunteeringexperience","tag-undergraduate","tag-volunteering"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/student-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28290","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/student-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/student-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/student-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3668"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/student-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28290"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/student-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28290\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28295,"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/student-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28290\/revisions\/28295"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/student-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28291"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/student-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28290"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/student-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28290"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/student-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28290"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}