Carla’s Pathway: A Global Lens, A Growing Conviction

In a corner of Bangkok, far from the streets of Amman where one childhood memory still lingers, Carla has been shaping a worldview defined by movement – between countries, cultures and, increasingly, convictions.

Universities across Europe have taken notice. Carla has received offers from the Bath, Warwick, Sussex, SOAS and Brighton in the UK, from Leiden University in the Netherlands and from the Brussels School of Governance. Her top contenders read like a map of her intellectual identity. Warwick’s programme impressed her early; SOAS drew her in with its diversity and focus on the Middle East and Asia; Brussels appealed with its comprehensive approach to international affairs.

Born and raised in the United Kingdom before living in Jordan, Australia and now Thailand, Carla speaks of her upbringing as if it were an ever‑widening camera lens. “I’ve had a global lens for as long as I can remember,” she says, describing classrooms with peers and teachers who insisted that the world was not something to be studied from afar, but encountered.

One of her earliest, most indelible memories comes from Jordan: walking across a street as a young girl, she noticed another child her age “much more disadvantaged,” she recalls, and began asking questions about fairness that, years later, would crystallise into a career ambition. As she nears the end of her IB Diploma, Carla plans to study Political Science and International Relations, drawn not by abstraction but by impact. “I want to turn passion into action,” she says. “Understanding global issues, power and solutions, that’s what drives me.”

It is a focus that has already shaped her education at Bangkok Patana School, which she joined at the end of Year 7 after a COVID‑era move from Australia. With only three weeks on campus before the world shifted online, Carla expected disconnection. Instead, she found community. “Even through the screen, I felt humanity and warmth,” she says. “Our teachers were proactive, supportive. It never felt isolating.”

Bangkok Patana’s ecosystem of clubs, speakers and service programmes became the scaffolding for her developing interests. She gravitated toward humanities from the start, History, Geography, Literature; subjects that rewarded her love of writing and research. “From Years 8 and 9 onward, I knew this was my direction,” she says.

Service work became another pillar. As a Well-Being Ambassador she worked closely with students through one-to-one peer support while also advocating for student well-being across the school. This role taught her skills in communication, problem-solving, responsibility and leadership. In the club For The Blind, she helped raise funds for a local school. Outside campus, she volunteered with Hope Bangkok, an organisation supporting refugee women, and visited orphanages that left her “grounded and determined.” At a human rights conference, meeting the renowned justice Michael Kirby sharpened her sense of possibility. “It was an impactful moment that influenced my journey,” she says.

Her languages, English and Arabic, with developing French, became tools for connection. Carla recounts a recent food‑donation visit to a Yemeni girl who told her story in Arabic: “It was difficult to hear,” she says. “But it made me certain about the work I want to do.”

Academics are only one side of her story. Carla is equally anchored in the arts, she has pursued Higher Level Art for her IBDP, plays guitar (since the age of three), and continues to pursue creative work with the patience that art demands. “It teaches resilience,” she says, “It helps you express complex ideas.” She also finds freedom in equestrian sports, from dressage to show jumping.

As Carla contemplates the next chapter, she is clear-eyed: she intends to become a human rights lawyer, perhaps working with the United Nations or another global agency. Political Science, she believes, will give her the breadth required to understand, and challenge, the frameworks that shape people’s lives.

Looking back, she credits Bangkok Patana with instilling values she considers non‑negotiable: kindness, fairness, global citizenship, independence, the confidence to speak her truth. “There are so many women and girls who would love to have the education I have,” she says. “I’m grateful, and I want to use it to make a difference.”

Carla is still debating where she will go next. But wherever she lands, the pathway she has carved is already unmistakably her own.