What’s your role? I’m Glesni and I’ve been working with MFL Mentoring since September 2019. I am the Operations Manager for the project but prior to this I was a Project Coordinator. I manage everything to do with secondary schools and student mentors and really enjoy working with both! 😊 No two days are the same – there’s always something new to embrace and that’s what I love about my role!

I’m from North Wales, with Welsh being my first language and I attended both a Welsh-medium primary and secondary school. I studied my BA History and German, and MA Medieval History here at Cardiff Uni and was a student mentor for two years before joining the project in my current role. My favourite things are: ☕ (lots of coffee), 🐶 (all of the dogs) and 📚 (I’m a massive book hoarder) and I also kickbox in my spare time🥊. And of course, I really love languages and am always trying to learn more than one at the same time!

Languages have shaped my identity in ways that I would never have even imagined were possible when I was a young girl, and they’ve opened doors to a world full of possibilities. Choosing to study German from scratch at university was such a wise decision and it has brought me such wonderful experiences, and there’s no doubt that my year abroad really helped develop my self-confidence. I enjoyed my time as a British Council Teaching Assistant in Duisburg, Germany so much, that I really didn’t want to come home! Since then, I’ve started learning Arabic, Latin and Persian – I love learning languages that have alphabets that are different to what we consider to be a ‘normal’ alphabet. Also, my partner’s family are originally from Iran, so I’ve managed to pick up a few words here and there and I always try my best to speak as much of the language as I can.

My favourite thing about the project is that I get to meet and work with so many inspirational students across Wales.

I really enjoy learning from the students that work with the project and hearing about their experiences mentoring or delivering workshops at their schools – it’s truly heart-warming!

We receive such positive feedback from our mentors about their sessions, and it’s amazing to hear the positive impact that the experience has on their self-confidence too, which often leads them to consider alternative career paths.

It also helps that I get to work with such fantastic colleagues, who bring energy, creativity, diverse ideas and experiences to this wonderful project!