A Shanghai Summer for Marketing student

University of Teesside BA (Honours) Marketing student Hamish Newhouse spends his summers in diverse locations. He has recently completed a two-month placement in Shanghai, China, working for a property company. Hamish’s Shanghai summer is a sharp contrast to last year, when he worked on a conservation project in Belize, helping to build a warden’s coastal out-post.

Hamish, 22, from Richmond, North Yorkshire, learned about the Shanghai placement when he visited his sister Emma, who is studying Physiology in Edinburgh. Hamish visited a careers fayre and saw details of the ‘Teaching Project’s abroad’ programme, which offered the self-funded Chinese placement.

Stockton-born Hamish said: “It was great to experience a totally different working culture and my first time over there. China was really cool, and it was nice to put into practice what I’ve learned. The Ru An Property Company sells space for multi-national retail organisations, and I worked in a range of departments, including Human Resources and marketing, so I got a feeling of what it was like to work for a Chinese company. I’ll be using this experience towards my final-year dissertation when I return to the University in the autumn.”

In summer 2001 Hamish worked on a conservation project in the coastal area of Caulker, Belize. This project was also self-funded, and Hamish was part of a team who constructed the warden’s building from wood.

Hamish added: “It was such an awesome experience, I got such a sense of achievement. Sleeping in a hammock was brilliant, although we had to pack up quickly when hurricane Chantel hit Belize. The hurricane passed over during the night, but amazingly our structure wasn’t harmed in any way. We also did some jungle training, which was like an episode of survivor, lying in your hammock seeing Jaguars passing by and scorpions moving about below.”

Prior to enrolling at the University, Hamish was a pupil at St. David’s College in Wales, where he achieved ‘A’ levels in Business Studies, Technology and Art & Design. Hamish was diagnosed as dyslexic at the age of 12 and St. David’s, an independent school, provided one-to-one tuition to assist Hamish’s learning.

“The University has good support for dyslexic students, for example I’m allocated extra time for exams. I’ve really enjoyed the Marketing degree so far, the Lecturers are amazing and supportive”, said Hamish, who is the son of Fiona and Richard Newhouse.

For more information on the BA (Honours) degree in Marketing please call 01642 342807 or check the University of Teesside’s web site at www.tees.ac.uk

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