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In the latest episode of Chatting with Channing, alumna Chiara Lewis (Class of 2021) returns to Highgate Hill to share how a love of languages and literature led her not only to Cambridge and a year abroad in Paris, but also to seeing her byline in The Times.
Chiara, who joined Channing in 2007 and stayed all the way to Year 13, describes walking back into school and instantly remembering classrooms, teachers and favourite lessons. Languages were a particular passion, nurtured by enthusiastic teachers who brought it to life, along with Sixth Form English classes that felt more like collaborative seminars than traditional lessons.
After leaving Channing in 2021, Chiara went on to study Modern and Medieval Languages (French and Spanish) at Cambridge. Her degree took her to Paris for a year abroad at the Sorbonne Nouvelle, where she explored art history, cinema, French literature and advanced language modules – all taught in French. Living independently in Paris gave her a new sense of confidence and a front-row seat to French culture.
That experience in Paris became the foundation for one of the standout achievements she discusses in the episode: writing for The Times. Chiara first got involved in student journalism at Cambridge, contributing to Varsity and the Cambridge Language Collective. Building on that, she secured a week of work experience at The Times after her year abroad. Expecting simply to observe and learn, she soon found herself pitching story ideas aimed at her own generation.
One idea in particular stood out: a piece on Parisians leaving the city during the Olympic Games, and how social media and TikTok culture were changing local neighbourhoods. Drawing on her own life, Chiara wrote about the tension between Paris’s strong sense of tradition and the sudden influx of visitors keen to visit viral hotspots they’d seen online.
Given just an afternoon deadline to produce her first draft, she worked on it overnight, returned with the article the next day – and was told it would run.
Throughout the episode, Chiara returns to a core idea: languages are not just about vocabulary and grammar, but about cultural fluency. While translation tools and AI can be helpful, she points out that they can’t fully grasp tone, nuance or context – the kinds of subtleties that human translators and careful readers handle instinctively. For her, studying languages is about understanding how other people think, live and express themselves.
The episode finishes with a joyful burst of nostalgia as Chiara recalls Channing Christmas: staff pantomimes, the witty Christmas debate, and the famous Christmas Classroom competition.