 Hi, my name is Jonathan Glinderman. I did the New Colombo Plan in 2015 and now I'm working as the senior risk analyst for property exchange Australia in Melbourne. The New Colombo Plan scholarship has definitely transformed my personal life from living on the Gold Coast. I'd still be working in a retail job and probably studying for my PhD if I hadn't been for the opportunity the New Colombo Plan gave me to go and live and work in Hong Kong and travel through the Asia Pacific for several years and then moving down to Melbourne afterwards. I think my experience on the New Colombo Plan scholarship definitely gave me a bit of an edge in the job market coming back to Australia, working for a company like PECSA who is looking to expand into the Asia Pacific region. I think the professional networks I was able to build starting out in Hong Kong have really set me up in the early stages of my career, being able to have regular one-on-one access to relatively senior people in an organisation like QBE in the Asia Pacific headquarters really giving me experience that I wouldn't have had otherwise. I really don't know what the future might hold but the experience and the connections that I've gained through the New Colombo Plan across the Asia Pacific region really broaden what those possibilities might be. I think a program like the New Colombo Plan is really important for young people and undergraduates across Australia to really encourage them to gain that experience in the Asia Pacific region and like me it really changed my outlook and it's changed the possibilities in my career.