Hi everyone! My name is Lara Machado, I'm from Brazil and I'm studying the MA in Curating
Contemporary Design at Kingston University.
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I think the greatest part about my Kingston experience was probably the range of different things that I could engage with Because my
course is quite dynamic so I had lectures at the Design Museum, I had the possibility
of visiting different museums, visiting different galleries. Also the KSA
has a partnership with Dorich House Museum which I went as well in a symposium and they
have the Stanley Picker Gallery. And also I managed to engage with Kingston Hub which
is about volunteering and helping other people. So I'd say definitely the range of things
that I could engage with during my time there.
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I think what I'll miss the most about my time at Kingston is in a certain way what I'm already missing now, which is the contact with my
classmates and the contact with my tutors and just feeling like you have that university
environment and the university support because I quite enjoy the academic environment.
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I think my biggest challenge in terms of going to study at Kingston was definitely choosing where I wanted to live...
choosing the university in the first place was a bit challenging. Choosing where I wanted to live
because my course involved many different locations around London. I think commuting
to the university was a bit challenging as well. And just sort of knowing how to be a
postgraduate student because it's quite different from an undergrad experience and knowing what
is required of you and what sort of behaviour you need to have as a Master's student you
need to be quite independent. So yeah I think that was the biggest challenge
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Outside of my study time I spent my time as an international student trying to engage
with as many activities as I could. So I volunteered for Kingston Hub, I also volunteered at the
Vagina Museum I volunteered for Sofar Sounds as well. I was always trying to meet with
classmates and other friends, I was also trying to go to events at Kingston, trying to meet
new people. I also did a French course to try to get as much out of my experience as
I could for sure.
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In terms of how I balance work study and social life, I tend to exaggerate a little bit, I'm a bit of an over achiever so I had loads of part-time jobs and loads
of volunteering, loads of social commitments as well. So I think in terms of trying to
balance that out, I'd say definitely trying to prioritize and time manage. Trying to be
smart about my time and when I would do something, I would I would sit and I would do it. Like
if it's my time to study I would sit down and study and try to be as rational and as
direct with it as possible. And when it would be my time to socialise, I would be there
and socialise. I studied in my commuting a lot because I had a long commuting time. So
I think in terms of trying to balance that you need to be financially sustainable, so
if you need to work, you need to work. But make sure that your studies come first in
that sense and try to be smart about your time and see where you can fit moments for
everything like if you have a long commuting time then maybe you can read a book or you
can listen to a podcast and study on the train. Be mindful that you need to have a social
life also because that's important for your well-being.
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I loved being a student blogger and I would definitely recommend anyone to do it because
as I was producing content for people to experience London and to experience Kingston I was experiencing
those things myself. So going to a market or to a museum or I don't know talking about
fairs or lectures or volunteering work I had to go through those experiences and I was
sharing my experiences in order to help other people or to you know help them make the decision
about studying at Kingston or not. So I feel like it was a very valuable way to spend my
time and to enhance my own experience and help other people to enhance their experience
as well. In terms of flexibility, it's quite a flexible job to juggle with your studies,
so it was quite good in that sense.
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I think the biggest lesson I'm taking away from this year is definitely that, you need to surround yourself with people that are good for you
and that you love and that you can trust because you never know when you can help them or when
they can help you and you need to have that support system. That you need to let fate
and serendipity act in your life as well. Then you need to work hard but also don't
work too hard. That it's important to make plans but it's also important to understand
that your plans might change and there's nothing you can do about that and it's also about
embracing possibilities and sort of going along with where your life takes you, but
with a little bit of drive and good people around you.
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In terms of my plans for the future I'm still deciding it because of the pandemic everything is so up in the air and uncertain
that I still have loads of different possibilities that I could undertake, but it's still too
soon to know what's gonna happen. But I'm considering taking some time off after the
Masters because it was quite overwhelming at times. And traveling a little bit if I
can or if I can secure a really good job that would be interesting as well in a museum or
a cultural institution of some sort, depending on when they will reopen. And then a bit of
a longer term i'm also considering doing a PhD but i think i might want to take a little
bit of a break before that.
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How has Kingston helped me prepare for my future plans - I'd say it helped me in the sense of opening up my possibilities because I engaged with a
lot of different things during my Master's and of course it gave me theoretical knowledge
that I didn't have prior to that and it's going to give me a higher degree than what
I previously had which is probably going to help me in my future plans. Also just the
the connections that I made my course has quite good industry links, so I met loads
of different people especially because I'm studying under a Chevening scholarship, so
I met loads of other different scholars and I think my network is quite stronger in that
sense. So yeah I think in terms of future plans it definitely helped me to broaden my
perspective about what the future holds.
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