{"id":14402,"date":"2020-01-01T10:00:27","date_gmt":"2020-01-01T10:00:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ounews.co\/?p=14402"},"modified":"2020-01-01T10:00:27","modified_gmt":"2020-01-01T10:00:27","slug":"the-ou-gave-me-the-tools-to-go-out-and-make-a-difference","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/student-stories\/the-ou-gave-me-the-tools-to-go-out-and-make-a-difference\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cThe OU gave me the tools to go out and make a difference\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bradley Neal always had an interest in the natural world and a concern with what was happening to the planet so he decided he was going to try and make a difference, starting with educating himself on the environment and the issues affecting it.<\/p>\n

“I have a passion for the natural world. The decline in so many species and habitats demonstrate the ever-clear issues surrounding climate change demand solutions, so I wanted to be able to do something about it. There is a lot of natural beauty in the world and I want to be able experience it as much as possible, as closely as possible and ensure it is there for the next generation.”<\/p>\n

Prior to the OU, Bradley\u2019s experience with education wasn\u2019t a particularly positive one and as a result he didn\u2019t ever think he could attain a degree.<\/p>\n

School wasn\u2019t the right time for learning for me<\/h2>\n

“School wasn\u2019t the right time for learning for me. I under-achieved, and while I passed with mostly acceptable grades at GCSE and A-Level I wasn\u2019t motivated enough to put the effort in. I suffered from the inability to push myself over the edge into something unknown\u2014a fear a failure that meant I didn\u2019t even try.”<\/p>\n

It was his husband James who first suggested The Open University as he had previously studied a Natural Sciences degree. With James\u2019 support and encouragement, he signed up for an honour\u2019s degree in Environmental Science.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Bradley Neal carrying out field work<\/p><\/div>\n

Bradley was working in retail when he first began studying before moving to a local school to work as a Science Technician.\u00a0 He was then promoted to Senior Technician, which he says was largely down to the fact he was working towards a degree.<\/p>\n

Making a difference<\/h2>\n

While working at the school Bradley spotted the opportunity to use what he was learning on his course to make a direct impact on the school\u2019s environmental plan.<\/p>\n

“I was tasked to write a renewable energy feasibility assessment for a client, and I chose to use the school where I work. After doing all the research I decided that it was doable in real life, so I crunched the numbers and presented a plan to the leadership team to persuade them to use solar panels as a way of generating energy for the school.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

To Bradley\u2019s delight the schools Trust approved his plans and they agreed to install solar arrays on both schools as part of a 25 year project saving approximately 3,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions, generating 1.2 mWh of electricity and truly setting an important example for its combined 2,500+ students.<\/p>\n

Needless to say that Bradley is extremely proud that he\u2019s used his degree to make a positive and real-life difference to the world.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe OU gave me the tools to go out and make a difference, and a team of passionate educators allowed me to apply my education in the best possible way \u2013 it\u2019s institutions such as these which lead the way in environmentalism\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

A new career beckons<\/h2>\n

Having achieved a 2.1 in his degree \u2013 something he never thought possible, Bradley is now studying for a post graduate Masters in Conservation Ecology at Oxford Brookes where he hopes to eventually do a PHD and move into conservation work.<\/p>\n

Having set out to educate himself and make a difference to the world, it\u2019s clear that Bradley has more than met his goals.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bradley Neal always had an interest in the natural world and a concern with what was happening to the planet so he decided he was going to try and make a difference, starting with educating himself on the environment and the issues affecting it. “I have a passion for the natural world. The decline in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":14407,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[815,861,1525,1640,2146],"class_list":["post-14402","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-student-stories","tag-environment","tag-faculty-of-stem","tag-news-home","tag-ou-home","tag-students"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14402","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\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14402"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14402\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14407"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14402"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14402"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14402"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}