As our current group of 'Stipis' see the new year in and enjoy their last few weeks in Germany, we turn our attention to one of the lucky group of 2019, those who got to enjoy their exchange just before our program, along with most of the world, shut down for two years. Thomas White went on exchange to northern Germany as a fresh-faced, suburban Melbourne kid, and learnt a lot about self-reliance and resilience. He now uses those skills every day as he navigates his way around Manila, where he is studying on a scholarship. As an ASEAN Fellow, Thomas is also a regular attendee and speaker at their conferences around the region.
Year of exchange: 2019 / 20
Group Leader: James Henderson
School: Box Hill High School
German Teacher: Frau Nathan (Year 7-8), Herr Smith* (Year 9-10), Frau Kühn (Year 11-12)
* Nathaniel Smith, himself a 2010 SAGSE Scholarship recipient
Town / city of exchange in Germany: Gehrden, outskirts of Hannover
Although my exchange was certainly very challenging at times, I do remember it incredibly fondly.
I remember my time at school as genuinely enjoyable, being able to connect with new people from my class. I particularly remember one of my favourite days was exploring Hannover with another international student in my class.
I remember Silvester (New Year's Eve) 2019/20, not just because it was a really fun time and just absolutely amazing to be completely surrounded by fireworks, but also because it was a point where I was significantly more confident with my German. I understood what people were saying to me, and I was even able to translate for some native-English speakers at the party.
And of course I remember our free-travel and the time in Berlin just before we left. I fell in love with Berlin as a city that winter, just the brutal aesthetic and the grunge and the good food, it’s made me excited to go back at some point in future.
Overall, I remember by 3 months in Germany as one of the more difficult experiences of my life (being forced to adjust to a new living situation, new language and embed myself in a new culture), but definitely one of the most rewarding. The person I’ve become wouldn’t have been possible without that experience.
2020 - Completed a VCE Baccalaureate from Box Hill High School
2021 – Present – Enrolled in a Bachelor of Politics, Philosophy, and Economics / Bachelor of Commerce at Monash University
2022 – Study tour at Jindal Global University in Sonipat, Haryana, India
2023 – present – Recipient of the New Colombo Plan Scholarship for the Philippines and Fellowship for ASEAN
2024 – present – Cross-Registrant Student studying Political Science, Public Administration, and Economics, at the University of the Philippines (Diliman)
Upon returning from Germany in 2020, I spent my year 12 locked up at home during a worldwide pandemic. Despite the challenge (and taking advantage of some wonderful peace and quiet), I graduated and enrolled in a double bachelor's degree at Monash University! This started as a Bachelor of Arts, and the newly established Bachelor of Politics, Philosophy, and Economics (PPE), however I later switched out my Arts degree for a Commerce Degree. I am still completing my undergraduate degree, with specific focuses on politics, governance, and sustainable economics.
In 2022 I participated in the PPE Global Study Tour, which was a 2-week program in India. I took a lot of my experiences from Germany in how to best engrain myself in a new place and applied it to my time in India. That experience with SAGSE became even more important after I was awarded the New Colombo Plan Scholarship by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, putting me on a year-long stay in the Philippines, a country I have a deep relationship with, and completing a fellowship focusing on relationships in Southeast Asia! This is actually where I am writing to you all from at the moment.
2019- 2022 – Private family tutor
2021 – 2022 – Bar and Wait Staff at the Groove Train, Knox
2022 – 2024 – Project Support Officer at Culture Spring, the Youth-Led Impact Agency at the Centre for Multicultural Youth
2023 – 2024 – Environment and Social Justice Office-Bearer at the Monash Student Association
Being on student exchange, I am currently not working, although hoping to take up an internship in the near future. Before departing to the Philippines, I was a student union official at the Monash Student Association, and a youth worker based out of Culture Spring. Culture Spring is a youth-led, youth-staffed, and youth-focused agency within the Centre for Multicultural Youth, with the purpose of uplifting and empowering multicultural young people to create the change they wanted to see in the world. It was amazing work to be involved in, and I definitely want to remain engaged and involved in the sector and the impact it has.
At the moment, I am studying at the University of the Philippines (Diliman) as a part of the New Colombo Plan Scholarship. I’m attempting to learn everything I can about the Philippines, its politics, economy, and society, both from an academic perspective as a scholar, and from a personal perspective as someone from mixed Filipino-Australian heritage. I’ve been very lucky to attend a couple of conferences lately as well that have given me the opportunity to explore more of Southeast Asia. Last year, I was able to attend the ASEAN-Australia Young Leaders Forum in Kuala Lumpur, and this year, I attended the Digital Spark Competition for ASEAN, Australian, and Timorese young people, and the ASEAN Youth Conference.
Looking forward, I am hoping to get back into youth work and the multicultural youth space once I return to Australia. I am also very lucky that I am going to be able to return to Europe next year, and I will be making sure to visit both Benedikt, my Austauschbruder who stayed with us in Australia, and Tobi, who I stayed with in Hannover.
I think SAGSE was the first real moment that I became a global citizen. I have been blessed in the years since to be able to meet people, work, and study in places all over the world, from Germany, to India, to the Philippines. The skills that I learnt from my time in that small town outside of Hannover are the same tools around self-reliance and resilience that I use to live in the 20-million- person metropolis that is Manila. I don’t think I would have been able to survive here as smoothly or as I have if I didn’t have my experience in SAGSE.
Additionally, my experiences engaging in politics in Germany, such as attending the Fridays for Future protests, really gave me a global understanding of how these movements work, and have informed a lot of my work and my world-view.