An early interest in Chinese pays dividends for new Gates scholar

  • October 6, 2010
An early interest in Chinese pays dividends for new Gates scholar

New Gates scholar Charlie Melvoin became fascinated by Chinese at an early age and now plans a career in "independent diplomacy".

Gates scholar Charlie Melvoin [2010] developed a love of Chinese at an early age and his fascination has led him aroumd the globe and finally to Cambridge.

He has, for example, acted as a guide to Rupert Murdoch at the Beijing Olympics, worked for the UN in Uganda and visited 22 countries in his gap year.

He says he owes it all to his high school Chinese teacher, Dr Zhou, who was truly inspiring.

“He had an incredible knowledge and passion,” says Charlie. “It was a hard language to learn so though there were eight of us on the programme to begin with only four were left by the end and we got a lot of attention.”

Charlie starts a masters in Development Studies at Cambridge this term.

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