I WAS in the USA for 11 months until July 2014 through an exchange programme with Vassar College and my home institution, the University of Exeter.

Vassar is a highly selective, private, liberal arts college in the Hudson Valley of New York and only I and one other British student were admitted to the college on the exchange.

Fortunately, I was exempt from the college’s annual tuition of $61,000 through Exeter’s sponsorship. I studied English as my major, alongside history, art history and American studies under the American liberal arts system.

As a Vassar student I was given a host of academic and extra-curricular opportunities that hadn’t previously been available to me.

Class teaching frequently included field trips around the Hudson Valley and NYC. Outside class I joined the debating society and competed against prestigious institutions such as Harvard and Stanford at tournaments hosted at other colleges like Yale.

In my breaks I travelled and visited the friends I had made at college. I spent time in Miami, Washington D.C., Maine, New Hampshire, Boston, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Philadelphia, Toronto, Niagara Falls, San Francisco and Los Angeles.

I had a many unique experiences: being in an earthquake in Los Angeles, a record-breaking polar vortex in Canada, attending a NY Yankee and a Miami Heat game, practising ice-climbing and caving in upstate NY during the winter.

Upon completion of my course at Vassar I began a publicity and editorial internship with Rizzoli International Publications, a major publisher based in NYC.

To support my year, I received a Queen Diamond Jubilee Scholarship of £2,000 and a Global Internships Grant of £1,250 to support the Rizzoli internship, from the University of Exeter, alongside the initial sponsorship of Vassar tuition.

All of these opportunities and experiences demonstrate the existence of opportunity to younger generations who, like myself, have been born and raised in Weymouth and attended secondary schools like Budmouth College.

This is in contradiction to the recent Observer article that declared Weymouth as ‘a graveyard of ambition.’ Telling young people such false information isn’t helping. These statements should be ignored and younger generations should actively pursue opportunities and generate ambition, working against the idea that Weymouth has a ‘poverty of aspiration,’ instead of doing nothing about it.

I’m now back in Weymouth and doing a six-week internship with Battens Solicitors. The internship is supported by Santander Universities and Exeter University through an Access to Internships scheme, which is yet another programme supporting younger generations to find professional, paid experience, whilst helping with their career paths.

This shows that while I had an incredible experience abroad in the US, there are still opportunities to be found here in Dorset also.

To read a blog of Daniel's adventures, click here.