OO Newsletter - Oswestry School

The Old Oswestrian Society
News
Gina Targets Commonwealth Games from Across the Pond
Like her brothers Jonathan
and Michael, Gina Paletta
started at Oswestry School in
Bellan House.
After GCSEs, Gina moved to
Yale College, Wrexham and
then the University of Wales
Institute, Cardiff (UWIC) from
where she graduated with a
2:1 degree in Sports Development
in 2011.
A promising teenage athlete,
Gina has developed into a
strong fell runner and has represented Great Britain and
Wales in Mountain Running placing fifth at the World
Mountain Running Championship in 2008 and sixth at
the European Mountain Running Championships in
2009. Unfortunately, Gina was injured for some of last
season and was unable to make the GB team this year.
Using her credits from UWIC, Gina was offered a 4 year
full scholarship at Concordia University in Portland,
Oregon in the USA, to take an Exercise and Sport Science
degree over 2 years and then a Masters over 2
years. On 14th August, Gina signed off with a personal
best time in the Welsh 10km Championships, her last
race in the UK for some time as she departed for Oregon
the following week. Better known as a fell runner,
Gina hopes to continue her progress in this event and
achieve the qualifying time for the 10km race for the
Commonwealth Games in Glasgow in 2014.
Jeanette Paletta, Gina's mother, says "She has settled
really well. The setup there is excellent. Training has
been going well and times have improved." Gina has
made an excellent start, winning her first two races and
earning the Cascade (the state league) Women's Cross
Country Runner of the Week for two weeks running.
This achievement saw her named NAIA National
Women's Cross Country Runner of the Week for 21st
September.
Gina's parents plan to travel to the States in November
to watch her run in the National Championships. We
wish her luck!
You can follow Gina's progress
on the internet. Her college
a t h l e t i c w e b s i t e i s
www.gocugo.com. The Casc
a d e w e b s i t e i s
www.cascadeconference.org
for Cross Country and http://
naia.cstv.com for Women's
Cross Country.
Chinese Studies Take David to Zhejiang University
After completing my undergraduate studies in the
UK, I decided to continue my postgraduate studies
in China. During my years at Oswestry
School, I made many friends from Hong Kong
and Mainland China and this made me interested
and curious about the country.
I am currently residing in the city of Hangzhou,
100 mile west of Shanghai, studying Chinese at
Zhejiang University. I am thoroughly enjoying my
time at the University and have had the opportunity
to meet people from all over the world including
two exchange students from North Korea!
I have had the opportunity to visit many places in
China, such as Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong
and also to ride on the new super high speed
trains. The Chinese people have been very welcoming
and I am very happy with my decision to
come here for further study. I cannot recommend
it enough.
Three OOs meet in Hong Kong, Spring 2011
Newell Tang OO (2000-2005), Fritz Chan OO (1999-2005) and David
David Lewis OO (1996-2005)
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