Richard writes, “I was elected as Governor of the English-Speaking Union in February 2021. The ESU was set up in 1918 to promote a better understanding between nations so as to try to prevent future wars. It promotes oracy – the ability to communicate, to speak fluently as well as to listen carefully and courteously to the views of others – at all stages of education. I was a fortunate beneficiary of the ESU’s Secondary School Exchange Programme in 1981, spending six months in the USA before university. I would highly recommend this experience to current Stoics: an 18-year-old having the opportunity to live and study in the US for a meaningful period of time, to make (what has turned out to be) lifelong friends, to travel around that vast country, to grow to understand and appreciate a different culture and different perspectives, derived from different histories and geographies.”
