 I'm Tess Harwood. I started the New Colombo Plan in 2014 in its first year. I went to Jakarta and Jogjakarta in Indonesia. The New Colombo Plan gave me the diversity of opportunities. I got to go to Jogjakarta where I studied international relations as well as advanced Japanese. And then when I went to Jakarta, I worked at the Australian Trade Commission where I worked on Australian and Indonesian two-way trade, especially with marine trade and then also looked at education and food imports and exports. Having the experience in the Asia-Pacific region really helped me to get a job in the Coral Bell School of Asia-Pacific Affairs. So having the knowledge of the region as well as the experiences that I got while I was at the Embassy working in social media and soft diplomacy helped me to find a job in communications at the Coral Bell School. The New Colombo Plan gave me credibility. It helped me to get my current scholarship that I'm on a full tuition scholarship at the Coral Bell School of Public Policy. The New Colombo Plan bringing me to Asia has just shown me what a connected region it is and how important this region is.