{"id":13742,"date":"2019-09-11T11:33:45","date_gmt":"2019-09-11T10:33:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ounews.co\/?p=13742"},"modified":"2019-09-11T11:33:45","modified_gmt":"2019-09-11T10:33:45","slug":"i-realised-not-all-was-lost","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/student-stories\/i-realised-not-all-was-lost\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cI realised not all was lost\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\u201cEven when\nthings go wrong, there are always options,\u201d says 27-year-old OU graduate Katharine\nBoulton. Despite not getting the university grades she hoped she would, she\ndidn\u2019t let this stop her and combined her industry experience with an OU\nMasters in Medicinal Chemistry. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI initially went to university to study forensic science,\u201d Katharine explains. \u201cI absolutely adored the CSI programmes and everything around forensics. I was adamant I wanted to pursue a masters in forensic genetics, but when I completed my degree I received a 2.2, falling short of the 2.1 required to get onto the course.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018I felt lost\u2019<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI wasn\u2019t sure\nwhere to begin,\u201d says Katharine. \u201cI felt lost.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite her\ninitial disappointment, Katharine decided to get stuck into the world of work\nfollowing her degree, finding her way into the pharmaceutical industry. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI was\nintroduced to this new industry and found I needed to get up to speed with it\npretty quickly. I initially wondered about going back to university full time\nto complete my masters, however, I know industry experience is invaluable.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Taking on a new challenge<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

When deciding her next step, Katharine found inspiration from her parents \u2013 Mike, an OU Nursing graduate<\/a>, and Debra, who first studied with the OU in the 1990s and has recently returned to study Physics<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00a0\u201cI was familiar with the concept and pleased to get a place on the MSc in Medicinal Chemistry<\/a> course, while continuing to work. The next four years were what I can only describe as pain, suffering and relief!”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cGetting my masters made me feel like I was on top of the world. All the hard work I had been putting on myself for the past four years just disappeared and made me realise I could do anything.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Katharine\ncompleted her masters with the OU this summer and has been able to move into\nthe more scientific departments of her workplace, where she is now a project scientist.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe OU has helped my life by giving me the confidence in an industry I had previously no idea about. It has allowed me to grow and develop and I can\u2019t wait for my next challenge!\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Help is there when you need it<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI want people to know that even though you go to a traditional university, sometimes it doesn\u2019t all work out how you planned. Even though I was still young, the OU treated me with respect and were there when I needed them. I realised not all was lost.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Byline: Carly Sumner <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Photograph
Carly Sumner, Digital Content Officer, The Open University.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Carly Sumner is a Digital Content Officer in the Development Office at The Open University. She loves telling stories and has spent the past 10 years writing about everything from nappy bags to balance transfers. She holds a BA (Hons) in Journalism and Media Studies from Coventry University. When she\u2019s not writing, Carly enjoys reading, sharing good food with great people, and all things colourful. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cEven when things go wrong, there are always options,\u201d says 27-year-old OU graduate Katharine Boulton. Despite not getting the university grades she hoped she would, she didn\u2019t let this stop her and combined her industry experience with an OU Masters in Medicinal Chemistry. \u201cI initially went to university to study forensic science,\u201d Katharine explains. \u201cI […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":13744,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30,18],"tags":[388,1390,1484,1525,2115,2210],"class_list":["post-13742","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-science-environment","category-student-stories","tag-case-study","tag-masters","tag-msc","tag-news-home","tag-stem","tag-ou50"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13742","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13742"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13742\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13744"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13742"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13742"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13742"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}