{"id":1027,"date":"2016-03-10T10:13:00","date_gmt":"2016-03-10T10:13:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/OU-Sport\/?p=1027"},"modified":"2016-09-06T09:44:12","modified_gmt":"2016-09-06T09:44:12","slug":"student-story-alan-campbell","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/OU-Sport\/?p=1027","title":{"rendered":"Student Story: Alan Campbell, Olympic Medallist"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Alan Campbell is an Olympic rower competing for Great Britain and is also studying for an OU degree. Alan\u2019s coach encouraged him to think about his future after rowing and so Alan enrolled onto a degree in Leadership and Management. Having a competing career as an athlete whilst also trying to complete his studies has not been without its challenges, but Alan is due to complete his studies in 2016 and compete at his 4th Olympics games in Rio.<\/p>\n

\nhttps:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/OU-Sport\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/Alan-Olympics-OU.mp4<\/a><\/video><\/div>\n

\"Alan<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

“<\/em>My rowing coach, Bill Barry, was the person who encouraged me the most to study. He\u2019s a businessman himself and had a business background outside of rowing. He\u2019s an Olympic silver medallist from 1964 but realised that rowing will come to an end one day. As an athlete there will come a time when you get too tired and can no longer compete, so there has to be something beyond sport, or beyond rowing for me. Effectively one career will be coming to an end and I need a way into another career, the OU presented that opportunity for me.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Alan<\/a>The OU was convenient, well known and could fit around my life. The fact is that I wouldn\u2019t have been able to go to a normal university and attend lectures whilst being an athlete. My life involves attending training camps around the world and I\u2019ve got a family at home, so I need to be able to study whenever I can and not when someone else tells me to study. I don\u2019t know of any other university that can offer that opportunity in the same way and at the same level.<\/em><\/p>\n

My OU experience so far has been a very positive one. It\u2019s a degree and it\u2019s not easy \u2013 it\u2019s a hard thing to fit around an already busy life, but you\u2019ve got to make time for it. There are times when I\u2019ve had to cram work in at the last minute, times when I\u2019ve been up very late and I shouldn\u2019t have been because I had rowing the next day. There have been times where I\u2019ve found it very frustrating but I\u2019ve always felt like I\u2019ve been well supported. I seem to be getting good marks and doing well at the same time.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"CAS000301_highres_0\"<\/a>I\u2019ve had to contact the tutors previously for extensions, which I\u2019ve fully utilised, and sometimes for a re-mark. What I like about the OU tutors is that they haven\u2019t all come from a purely academic background, they are from business backgrounds and a lot of them still work full time in their field and the OU is part time for them. I\u2019ve found whenever I\u2019ve asked them questions related to my course they are talking from personal experience too \u2013 this is something I\u2019ve always found much more helpful.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Alan<\/a>If I had to sum up my overall OU experience I would say that it\u2019s been tough but rewarding. It\u2019s given me an opportunity for the future.<\/em><\/p>\n

My advice would be to have a look at degrees you like the look of and to start with level 1 courses and certificates \u2013 they really give you an insight into what studying is like. I feel like my degree will open up a lot of opportunities for me and that people will notice the OU degree. Unlike a lot of other athletes, I didn\u2019t finish my degree first time around – I started an Engineering degree before I left to go rowing. But my OU degree will be relevant because it\u2019ll be more recent. I\u2019ll come out of rowing in 2016 after Rio, which will be my 4th Olympics, and will finish my degree in 2016 too.”<\/em><\/p>\n

If you are interested in studying sport and fitness at The Open University please visit our ‘Study with us<\/a>‘ page.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Alan Campbell is an Olympic rower competing for Great Britain and is also studying for an OU degree. Alan\u2019s coach encouraged him to think about his future after rowing and so Alan enrolled onto a degree in Leadership and Management. Having a competing career as an athlete whilst also trying to complete his studies has […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[93],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1027","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-student-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/OU-Sport\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1027","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/OU-Sport\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/OU-Sport\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/OU-Sport\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/OU-Sport\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1027"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/OU-Sport\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1027\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1284,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/OU-Sport\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1027\/revisions\/1284"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/OU-Sport\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1027"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/OU-Sport\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1027"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/OU-Sport\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1027"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}