How Foundation Studies prepared Laurel Chen for uni

Growing up in Taiwan, Laurel Chen knew she wanted to study abroad to help improve her English, believing that an international education would be the best way to develop her language skills.

She chose to move to Australia and found that not only did she become more confident speaking through attending tutorials and meet-up groups, along with day-to-day living, but her writing skills and overall confidence improved significantly too.

Laurel had looked at her options abroad and decided she wanted to go to the University of Melbourne – Australia’s top-rated university – and discovered that Trinity College provided one of the best ways to get there.

It was at Trinity where she received a lot of support for her studies and language skills development. In particular, Laurel found the teachers to be patient in helping her structure assignments, which she didn’t have much experience in from school. ‘Knowing how to write a report and structure an argument is really helpful,’ she says. ‘The teachers were also always open to discussing different topics with us – we could even argue with them! It's really interesting that they're really confident with what they know, so don’t mind being challenged.’

Laurel also found that, at Trinity, she could take elective subjects, which was appealing, as she wasn’t quite sure what she wanted to study at university. ‘I thought it would be a good opportunity for me to explore different things and get to know what I really like.’

Through her electives, Laurel soon discovered she had an interest in accounting. ‘I went into it completely blind – I didn't really know what accounting was about, but I really enjoyed it and it grew on me.’ Laurel is now studying a Bachelor of Commerce at the University of Melbourne (remotely from Taiwan) and is planning to major in accounting. She now thanks Trinity for preparing her so well for her tertiary studies. ‘I think [Foundation Studies] helped me a lot in transitioning to uni,’ she says.