I was fortunate to spend nine months as the first Gap Year student, alongside George Eldridge, at Malvern College Egypt. Having lived in Malvern my entire life and attended Malvern College for five years I had a really firm idea as to what Malvern College Egypt should look like: to this effect I was pleased to be able to help out the PR and Marketing department. While the nine months went far too quickly I felt I was able to bring back some of the skills I learnt to the UK. For example, I have subsequently helped local small businesses develop their digital marketing strategies using things such as Facebook and Twitter. Since leaving Egypt I have interned for a British Government Minister and got accepted into university. I’ll go to the University of Bristol to study History with a semester abroad in Hong Kong specialising in modern European political history and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. I hope to join the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office as a diplomat after graduation although I’ll have to brush up on my Arabic! I’ll always have fond memories of Egypt and look forward to coming back to visit in November.

Robert Porter

After finishing the end of term at Malvern College Egypt, I had some time left before I left Egypt so I decided to leave Cairo for a week and a half and go up to the north coast with some friends. This was a fantastic place to visit (apart from all the jelly fish!) and one which I will never forget with the crystal clear blue water and the white sandy beaches. After a week on the north coast I came back to Cairo for a night, after that I headed down to Dahab in south Sinai. When there I took full advantage of the diving which was on offer, as I had achieved my rescue diver when at Malvern College. As well as this I went to a Bedouin camp for a night which was definitely an experience as there was no running water, no electricity and no phone signal however after trying this first hand I think that I prefer the life where these simple commodities exist! Since Egypt I have now started at Buckinghamshire New University to study Airline and Airport Management graduating in 2020.

Living in Cairo and working at Malvern College Egypt has taught me so many life lessons. However, none of the experience I gained would not have been possible without the people I met in Egypt, so I would like to thank everyone who made my 11 months in Cairo one of the best years of my life and two people who I couldn’t have done it without, my good and now I’m sure lifelong friend Robert Porter (my fellow Gap Student) and also my boss who taught me so many things and guided me, Iain Driscoll.

Thank you so much Malvern College Egypt for giving me the opportunity to be with you.

George Eldridge