STUDENT, Rebecca Mangan, at the ripe age of 15, came on work experience to The Resident for two weeks recently. She has lived in the Algarve for three years and attends the International School of the Algarve in Porches.
Moving to Portugal from her home in Dublin, Ireland, with her parents, she has settled into her new life here and has become an avid thespian. She feels that drama helps her break free of the shyness that shackles her, and “you get the opportunity to become someone else”.
It was her English teacher who suggested she do her her work experience at The Resident, after Rebecca told her she was interested in a future career in journalism. While in the office, she learned about every aspect of producing a newspaper, from writing stories to laying news pages. She thought it was the best placement, compared to some of the jobs her friends were doing, because she was not told to make tea or photocopy; the typical work experience tasks. She was given stories to write and was highly praised for her interesting style.
Initially struggling to come to terms with a new language, her experience has definitely improved her Portuguese, as part of her daily routine was looking through the Portuguese press. Her greatest challenge was dealing with people, as she claims her biggest flaw is her shyness, but the staff feel she did an admirable job. She threw herself into the work and tackled problems head-on.
She learned a great amount during her work placement and is keener than ever to become a reporter. One of the highlights of her time was attending the Algarve Summer Festival to report on the event, where she realised that she would like to go into music journalism, adding that, “I really do not want to be a political journalist”.
Until then, her plan is to complete her IGCSE course here and then finish her education in Britain. Her pipe dream is to become an Editor of a magazine in the US and, failing that, she would like to be an actress, though she believes she does not have what it takes.
We definitely want to see Rebecca’s name in print one day – good luck!
