Hi, I'm Zoe
and I do liberal arts.
I’m from North London
I'm from a Jewish community.
I went to a Jewish private school.
I grew up with my mum, my dad and my sister.
I've always had dogs growing up
and I've always had an interest in film, TV and American Studies,
which is why I wanted to study liberal arts at the University of Nottingham.
I'm very into musical theatre
and I used to do a lot of performing when I was younger.
Although I haven't done very much since because I can't really sing anymore
I also, like I mentioned, I love doing film and TV and I love editing
and that's why I think I want to do when I'm finished uni and graduate.
I chose to come to university because it's just something like
I've always thought about and always wanted to do before I started working.
There's no need to start working as soon as you finish Sixth Form
and I knew I wanted to come to university.
I chose Nottingham because of the campus, how beautiful it was.
I came to visit my sister on an open day and she actually went to the university
of Nottingham.
Although, she's ten years older than me and originally I did not want
to go to the same university as her, but once I saw the campus
I couldn't take my eyes off it and I knew I wanted to be here.
So I did everything that I could to get here.
I thought that I'd be really nervous when I first came and that wasn't the case
at all.
Like within the first week I'd met so many people and I was like
having the best time.
I thought there'd be a lot more like going out than there is.
Like I go out maybe once, twice a week and it's not too overwhelming,
but I don't love clubbing.
So it's quite nice
that there's so much other stuff to do, like to get involved with societies.
And I'm part of the Jewish society here as well, which is nice to be part
like to see people that I know from home
or don't know from home, but part of the same sort of community.
I've also done scuba diving since
since coming to university and I've met the most amazing people.
And I guess that was something I never thought I'd be doing.
And just the society that in the first week
made me think hey, maybe I can do this.
And that's what I did.
I thought it would be a lot more difficult than I've been founding it, actually.
I know that's quite a weird thing to say, but like, I didn't think
I'd be doing as well as I did because I was like a
like a C B student at A-level and like even before then GCSE.
But I've really like excelled at uni and I haven't like
got very many scores below a 2:1 which is obviously a very good
grade.
So I'm really happy with that and I'm really enjoying uni work.
One memorable experience that I had was in November.
It was when I was qualifying for my scuba diving
like course, my ocean diver
and we went to the Lake District
with a storm being predicted.
We got there and it was snowing, we could barely get out the van.
And it turned out that we were stuck in our accommodation
with no power, no wi fi, no service for two days.
And it was actually like the most like probably like
one of the best experiences I've had because it was just so fun.
We didn't get to do very much scuba diving.
We did one day as opposed to two.
And once we got out the water after the first dive on the Sunday,
it was like an inch of snow and it was absolutely freezing.
And we thought the lake was going to like ice over,
but it was really fun and a really good weekend.
I'd say maybe like my first time meeting
like my course tutor and my head of year
for liberal arts.
It was really nice because like instantly, like they knew my name,
they knew who I was.
And ever since then they've been really helpful
with everything.
Like even this week with my year abroad application.
Like it's been such a hassle because I'm trying to go on a full year,
but not add a year on to my degree
and they've been really, really helpful throughout and like
they're not like listening to the study abroad team
they're listening to me and trying to help me with
like getting on the whole year abroad as opposed to just the semester.
So I'd say throughout
they've just been really helpful.
I'd say my favourite place on campus for studying would be Monica
Partridge Building.
I really like the social environment of like when you want to study,
but you also want to have a bit of fun when you're not like pushed for deadlines.
It's a really good way to go.
Really, really good place to go and be able to study with out the pressure
of just sitting in a room for hours on end on your own.
With the social side of things,
I really enjoy going to mooch and just like walking around the Portland building,
I just
really love the student union and I think it's a great place to wander around.
And either
if you're with friends or you come and you see random people that you know
and end up having like a conversation with, like someone I knew from
from my foundation year.
I saw him last week
and we ended up spending like 7 hours
in the library afterwards just from me, like randomly seeing him
in the Portland building.
I really love Nottingham as a city.
I love that
there's like loads of shops and it's easy to get to from the tram or the bus.
Nights out are really good.
There's never a dull moment when you go into the city
because there’s always something different to do.
I also really like that
we're really near the peak district.
I've gone on a couple of hikes
with like some of my closest friends and we've had like the best times
taking some really great photos and it's really nice that we're so near.
Probably the
independence and the fact that I can cook for myself and
like, just like learning about living on your own
and being able to do that but in a kind of controlled environment, like the fact
that we've got the Res Ex team if we need anything like on campus
it’s really useful.
I think the best thing about being a uni of Nottingham student is
that you've got the greenery all around you where you're living,
whether that be Wollaton Park or on campus.
But you're a ten minute tram drive away from being in a city which is really nice.
I love liberal arts and I can't see myself like doing any other course now
because I love the fact that I can choose whatever I want to do.
Like I'm building my own degree,
I'm able to do modules from all different subjects,
and it's just so amazing that I don't have any restrictions on what I can do.
Like we have 40 credits of compulsory modules a year and then the other
80 credits are just completely like free reign to do whatever we want to do.
So I've chosen like history modules,
film and TV modules all the way over to psychology.
It's just very diverse and a really great way
to do a degree and be able to choose what you want to do.
I don't think I could have been
any more supported than I have been by my tutors and head of course.
The whole liberal arts faculty is so, so helpful.
Mainly because it's such a small degree, there's only about 250
or more of us on like over the three years.
So it's really like nice that all of the faculty that are liberal arts
specialist know you like you'll come in to the lectures
and if he asks a question, he'll know my name.
He'll be like, oh Zoe, answer the question
or something like that.
Same with the seminars and I just really like that
it's like a small environment where you can like
be really supported by your tutors.
I'd say that Moodle has inspired me the most
just because of how useful it is to a university student.
I don't think I'd be able to complete my degree without the help of Moodle
and all the other online tools that the university gives us.
Outside of my studies, I have been really lucky to become a subject ambassador
and this has helped me grow in confidence with like talking to
people and making speeches,
telling people to come and
do my course because it's amazing.
I'd also say that being a student vlogger has been really nice
because it's helped me like realise that I want to do editing after
I finish uni and like finding that out so early on in my uni career
means that I'm able to have more opportunities like this
and be able to like find work
experience and placements that can help me get there.
Next year I'm hoping to be going to the University of Connecticut
to study for a semester, and then hopefully
I'll be also studying at the University of Nottingham in Malaysia
and I'm really excited for both
and both give me completely different opportunities.
Connecticut’s going to really help me with my American Studies side of my degree
that I really enjoy and I'm hoping to do more modules on.
And then the Malaysia side is going to help me
with like the education side and just to completely like
have a completely different experience at like a familiar destination.
So it's very similar to Nottingham,
all the teaching is going to be the same, but it's in Malaysia,
I'd say maybe like
the fact that I'm trying my best to say yes to everything.
Whereas before I was quite quiet and didn't,
didn't necessarily say yes to a lot of things.
Like I learnt in freshers week
someone told me in freshers week just say yes to everything.
And as you can see with the scuba diving, I've clearly done that.
And yeah, I've just kind of taken every opportunity
to put myself out there with the vlogging, the student ambassador,
and just want to make my university experience worthwhile.
I'd say probably like essay writing
and time management as well as organisation.
Before uni I was very, very disorganised, hence why I probably didn't do very well
in A-levels or GCSEs,
but being in uni taught me that I need to be organised in order
to get my assignments done on time because if they're not
then it's automatic penalties and I just know I don't want that
at all, so I guess like I've learnt how to be more organised
and how to actually work which I definitely didn't know before.
Like I never used to study, couldn't, didn't know how to study.
I'd say the most demanding thing about being at university
was learning how to become organised and learning
how to like, manage doing six different modules at a time
and how to just kind of how to like live on your own and live independently.
And I'd say that my tutors have helped me a lot with this,
like with the organisation stuff.
Like, I meet with them like twice a year
and I'll just go through everything and we talk about
how I'm doing, how I'm being organised and that's really helpful.
I hope that my future looks like me
being an editor in for a big film company
hopefully, that's quite ambitious.
Back up would probably be going into marketing or PR.
I'm hoping to get some placements
from Nottingham that will be able to help me with that.
Having a degree from Nottingham will mean a lot to me.
Having a like having a degree from a Russell group uni
is really important and I think that it’s really going to help me
take the edge over other applicants when applying for jobs.
My dream thing would to become a big shot editor
big shot producer for a Hollywood company.