EF Academy alumni reunion in London

From April 8 to 10, we hosted the first ever official Global EF Academy Alumni Reunion weekend in London and New York. Nearly 25 alumni from our different campuses flew to London from other cities including Oslo, Madrid, Basel and Berlin.

“It was an amazing weekend. Thank you EF Academy for organizing this. I will definitely attend next year, maybe we can even organize it in Madrid,” said Felipe Mindermann, a German EF Academy New York graduate (class of ’14) now studying at IE Madrid.

We kicked off the Alumni Reunion in London with a welcome mingle at Queen of Hoxton, a rooftop club in hip Shoreditch. It was great to see so many hugs and smiles when our alumni met their friends from EF Academy, some of whom hadn’t seen each other for four years.

“The absolute best part of the reunion was seeing some of the amazing people that I met in New York again and getting back in touch with everyone. The networking was also a highlight,” Felipe said.

The next day, the group had a packed schedule at the beautiful venue of Hult International Business School. A group of IB Year 1 students from Oxford had prepared some “Meet and Greet” activities and also took the opportunity to interview our alumni about their EF Academy experience. After a welcome speech by Agnes Nairn, the Campus Director of Hult’s Postgraduate campus, we moved on to lunch. The afternoon sessions consisted of an alumni Q&A session with some of the very first EF Academy students in Torbay. Many of our alumni participants found this session to be the most interesting as they got to visualize how life after EF Academy and university could look while learning valuable tips about everything from visa requirements in the UK to how to finding your passion.

• Margarita Tsoy – A Russian alumna who graduated in 2008 and studied law at University of Warwick. Margarita started her career at EY – one of the Big 4 Accounting firms – and has since worked for companies such as Mercedes-Benz Financial Services and Glencore. She has recently joined Barclays Bank as the Indirect Tax Assistant Vice President.

• Assem Zhanabekova from Kazakhstan graduated from EF Academy Torbay in 2010. She studied Economics at the London School of Economics. After internships with the European Union Delegation to Kazakhstan and Eurasian Natural Resources Corporation, she finally chose to start with Bloomberg as an Equity Data Analyst and has now been working there for over two years.

• Pavels Stupins is from Latvia and graduated from EF Academy Torbay in 2008. He went on to study BA (Hons) Music Production at Leeds College of Music. Since then, he has worked in various roles within the music industry including positions as a sound engineer and assistant music producer.

The Q&A session was followed by an inspirational speech by Lorraine Ansell who focused on the importance of change and following your heart. She walked us through her fascinating career of being a PR/Marketing Manager for high fashion companies including L’Oreal, Yves Saint-Lauren, Stella McCartney, to working for the NGO Amnesty International before pursuing her dream of becoming a professional voice-over artist.

“Both the Q&A session and the inspirational speaker, Lorraine, were very informative and entertaining. I found it very valuable to get to know people who have already completed university programs and internships. I realized that you don’t need to be afraid of trying something new, something completely different from what you’ve been doing before. It was also very great for me to meet an alumna – Margarita – from my hometown,” said Olya Kornilova, an EF Academy Torbay graduate (class of ’15) now studying at the University of Westminster.

After the two inspiring sessions, the participants had a great discussion with EF Academy’s Alumni and Referrals Manager Jenny Zeng. The focus was on how to best set up the Alumni Association for the future and the alumni thought of ideas that included setting up local chapters run by alumni and creating mentorship programs with current students. The grand finale of Saturday’s events was the Gala Dinner where all participants gathered to enjoy a three-course dinner and each others’ company. During the evening, three prizes were handed out:

• Best teamwork for the school and year that was most represented
  Winner: New York Class of 2015, represented by seven EF Academy
• Globetrotter award (presented to the person who had traveled the furthest)
  Winner: Felipe Mindermann won by a thin margin
• Best Throwback (presented to the alumni with the best pictures from their time at EF Academy)
  Winner: Raka Akmal from New York 2015

The night later continued at Sway, a cool club in central London, where our alumni danced their way into Sunday. The final gathering took place at Café Warehouse, where the group enjoyed Sunday brunch.

“My favorite part of the reunion was the dinner organized by EF Academy where I met my friends and interacted with other alumni – the food was also delicious,” said Indonesia’s Raka Akmal, an EF Academy New York graduate (Class of ’15).