Before I was at Cambridge, I did an apprenticeship at the BBC.
I was a support worker.
I was working full-time at a bank.
I dropped out of university,
I worked in various jobs and I did some volunteering abroad in Sri Lanka.
I studied, I was a teacher for a year and I did a couple of banking internships.
Before I came to Cambridge, I was lost.
So I started off going to a different university and I just felt like the course wasn't quite right for me and the environment
so I ended up leaving and doing an apprenticeship at the BBC.
I kind of got to realise what I was really interested in which was politics so I then applied
again to Cambridge to do History and Politics.
My secondary school took five years because I had a foundational year, so when I was applying
for university and looking at my options I realised that I could apply as a mature student.
I've always really enjoyed learning from people who are older than me
and kind of taking in some of their experiences
as well as having the opportunity to live with people
who are not straight out of their own homes.
For me the reason I chose Cambridge is that the course itself was so unique at the time
so that was like a major draw for me.
Cambridge is such a beautiful city,
that's one thing, and I also thought that I kind of just wanted to be outside of
my comfort zone in terms of the teaching and the learning
and I know Cambridge has a reputation for being really high achieving
and while that was a little bit scary and a little bit daunting
I think it was a challenge that I kind of wanted. It does push you, but
I think I've really grown from that and I would recommend it to anybody and everybody.
And so I didn't realise I was going to end up here and I didn't realise I was a mature student
and now that I am, I'm so glad that I am because I just think it adds so much more to the experience.
Because I'd had three years away from studying obviously I wasn't
really used to writing essays again. Your supervisors and your lecturers
are actually quite aware of that and they're also reteaching everyone
how to write essays in the Cambridge way. So even if you come straight from school and
you're really experienced with that kind of thing they pretty much overhaul how you think and write
in a really exciting way.
You get to know your supervisors, they put their time and their energy into getting to know you and how you learn best and so all your
support is basically catered to how you learn.
I think the best thing is the range of content that I can pick from and then also the fact that
in your final year you can curate it to what you really want to go on to do in the future.
I've had the opportunity to follow my interests as they've developed over the course of my degree.
I have lectures like any other course. I also have quite a lot of seminars which are mostly optional.
In my first two years I had practicals and then I also have supervisions which are my
favourite part of the taught course to be honest. It's so nice to have a real focus with
like an expert in your field and you get to either really expand on your
topic if you're understanding it really well or they can kind of bring you a bit more up to
speed if you're falling behind a little bit so I really like that flexibility.
I haven't found being a mature student limiting. I haven't found that I feel out of place in any way.
It's a small-scale community
with events happening on a regular basis, whether they be academics or social.
I really enjoy the social environment and it's one of the primary reasons
why I applied to this College because it's so diverse, it's so
international and very very welcoming. We also have Director of Studies,
I think that's really good just knowing that there are people looking out for you.
You can care about having the name of Cambridge, you can care about
pushing yourself academically, but if you're going to live somewhere for three years you want
to know that you're going to have like a network of people that can help you through it as well,
so I think yeah that's really important.
I expected College to be friendly and welcome, but I could not imagine you know my best possible dream that it would be this nice.
Some of the people I've met here have truly changed my life and my
perspective on the world's issues. It's been a transformative journey
so far and I can't wait to see what the rest of my degree brings.