CHAMBER MEMBER STORY
How does Chamber membership help your business? The benefits of joining Londonderry Chamber of Commerce stretches far beyond the member themselves, as Hazel Eakin, Head of the Business Department at Foyle College can attest. Back in 2013 Hazel and her A’-Level class attended a ‘Doing Business in China’ Seminar at Ulster University Magee which was hosted by the Chamber. So inspired was she by the various speakers, from business leaders, to Mandarin teachers to local school leaders, that she set in motion a plan to open up a whole new world of language to her school’s pupils. “While I was there I found out about the Confucius Institute and the Mandarin teachers working in local schools teaching the Chinese language,” she says. “I got in touch with St Columb’s College, where the teachers were based, and I subsequently got a small Mandarin
Language group set up in Foyle College. “The language class has proved very popular with a small number of Year 13 and Year 14 pupils each year who want to learn Mandarin in their private study periods. “It has really benefited the pupils in Foyle College. I introduced Mandarin to the school and over the years that it has been running, quite a number of our pupils have taken up the opportunity to learn the language. They have been through their HSK Level 1 and 2 examinations. This year a group of our pupils made it to the final of the HSBC Mandarin Speaking Competition at the British Museum in London on 6th February. “Our students competed against 14 other schools in the group final. To participate with other schools at that level at the British Museum was a great opportunity for them, and a challenge for them certainly.”
Pupils and their teacher Xu Honge at the HSBC Mandarin Speaking Competition in Belfast
Although I I haven’t benefited personally from the Chamber, it has definitely helped the school and the pupils who have gone on to take up Mandarin and learn the new language.” Hazel says she would definitely recommend the Chamber of Commerce to others hoping to widen their horizons. “I would certainly recommend the Chamber of Commerce to other,” she said. “I discovered that the Seminar was on offer at Ulster University at Magee and I asked if my class could attend. I was given the opportunity to do so and that is where I learned that some business people from the Limavady and Londonderry area were living and working in China and about the links with Ulster University and the Confucius Hub. Knowing all this I felt that our school was missing out and I thought it would be a great opportunity for Foyle College to get involved. “If Londonderry Chamber of Commerce had not held the event back in 2013, I would not have known about the Confucius teachers in the city and our competition participation would not have happened. “It has enhanced the teaching and learning experience of many pupils in Foyle College over the past six years.”
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