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Life of an Undergraduate

Do you ever sit and wonder about the type of person that has written an article that you have been engrossed in or a book you couldn't put down?

You may wonder what their background is? Why they have written that particular article and what their favourite food might be? 

I gave some serious thought about what my first blog post for AstrobiologyOU would contain and whilst slowly drifting off to sleep I had a light bulb moment.

I have chosen to write about me. My life as a current OU undergraduate and how I got to where I am today.

So, my name is Emma, a thirty something from the UK, married and mum to a ten year old football and Minecraft loving son (pretty standard stuff so far). 

I've been told I'm very indecisive and "scatter gun" with my ideas - this often means I have trouble settling on the one activity, choosing to experience many things. 

So far, within the last 18 years, I've tried a number of different ideas (or hobbies as my husband calls them). He has been subjected to me trying:

  • Jewellery making
  • Roller Derby
  • Painting and drawing
  • Nail Technician (yes I am qualified!)
  • Network marketing
  • Paper cutting
  • Ice skating (passed to Level 2!)
  • and lastly cake making and decorating

The last one on this list I'm pretty proud of, I went back to this "idea/hobby" twice as I have a genuine love for decorating cakes and some would say I am very talented at it too.

Decorated cakes

I have always pursued things that fed my creative imagination, leaving school at 16 and having unsuccessfully fulfilled my dream of a career in graphic design my "hobbies" helped to feed my desire to be creative.

So how does this all link back to where I am today I hear you ask?

I have always been fascinated by the night sky; it amazes me every time I look up but my knowledge in this area was limited.

A passing comment in the summer of 2017 to my husband of "I would love to learn more about this space stuff" and him replying with "well, why don't you then?" led me down the path of enrolling on my first degree!

I researched my options and came across a degree being run by The Open University. Going to a "brick" university wasn't an option for me, what with having bills to pay, a family to feed and working part time too.

The degree I came across appeared to feed my desire to learn more about the Universe - I found out I could obtain funding for this degree through Student Finance and within 2 weeks I was enrolled on the "BSc Honours Natural Sciences" degree following the astronomy and planetary science route.

So, here I am 3 years later having completed my “first year” i.e. all my level 1 modules of a 6 year degree, and now studying my first Level 2 module (this is where it gets serious and goes towards my final classification).

I started my degree three years ago with high expectations of myself, after all I was only going to be doing this the once.

My first module was exciting! Alongside reading the text on screen I was also asked to carry out various experiments using normal household objects. I carried these out with my sons help and together we built a water molecule out of a tomato, sugarpaste and cocktail sticks, learnt how to make a paperclip float on the surface of water and grew cress in different environments.

Life of a space geekI started my own blog to write about my life as an OU student, an outlet for me to share all this newfound knowledge with all that would read it. I filled it with interesting facts I had learnt, events I’d attended and additional books I was reading.

When I started my degree I was working in the car industry and I knew that my long term goal was to work in the space industry (and to be more precise to work at The OU). I knew that I needed to network with likeminded people.

My blog gave me the opportunity to share my journey with others in the industry on Twitter, I shared it with The OU twitter feeds, tagged people I thought may be interested. Then one day I was contacted by a lady in the STEM faculty atThe OU. She had seen my blog and wanted to know if Id like to take part in a feature entitled “MeetUsMondays”.

 I excitedly said yes, here I had a chance to actually go into The OU Campus and tell everyone about why I chose to study with The OU.

Click on the image below if you are interested in seeing that video.

Meet us Monday video image

Summer 2018 also saw me attend and take part in the Student Association Conference, a chance to meet like minded students and staff from The OU on campus. I applied for a Volunteer place and was successful. The conference was held over a number of days and gave students a chance to meet one another, explore the campus, socialise and attend many workshops (including a chance to go into the OU’s observatory!).

The conference opened my eyes to the diversity of OU students and showed me what The OU means to not only me but others too.

Looking back my first year with The OU went pretty smoothly and to plan, all my assignments were completed on time and I passed my first module with a Distinction.

I started my second year with as much excitement as my first, this time I enrolled on two 30 credit modules.

Looking back now I realise I had been a little naïve, I had thought that with my first module being 60 credits and not having too much trouble to complete it, that two 30 credit modules would be the same sort of workload for me. For some people this may have been perfectly okay but for me it wasn’t.

I quickly found that juggling two modules, working my normal job, whilst also being mum was too much for me. I become increasingly frustrated with myself, I felt I was failing, I also felt I was alone in feeling this way. I found it hard to have to wait for an answer to a question I was having difficulty with and I gradually felt like I was falling behind with both modules. My studies had reduced me to tears of frustration, why wasn’t I getting it? Why didn’t I understand?

I felt like Id crashed and I didn’t know what to do, I'd let myself down!

Finally, after spending nearly 5 hours trying to answer one question on a TMA, I admitted defeat and phoned Student Services at The OU.

This is where The OU really comes into its own. I spent the next 1 hour and 30mins on the phone to a lovely OU staff member who reassured me I wasn’t alone and I wasn’t the only one to have felt like this. I had two options; carry on as I was or choose to defer one of my modules.

I chose to defer one and honestly this was the best decision I could have made. With one module now deferred I could put all my efforts and time into the other and try to pass that module. TMA writing became less stressful, and I started to enjoy my studying again and remember the reason why I started my degree in the first place.

The day of the examination was a new experience, it was another chance to visit The OU Campus. I sat with other OU students who looked as equally as nervous as me, we were all called into the Hall, shown our desks and we all sat down, bringing back memories of me sitting in a school hall at 16 taking one of many GCSE examinations.

My exam was followed by a talk being held on the campus that day, held by none other than AstrobiologyOU’s own Susanne Schwenzer! The talk given by Susanne was fascinating and confirmed in my mind that I had chosen the perfect degree for me.

The good news, I passed my examination and with this one now under my belt I felt ready to tackle my deferred module that October.

My second year with The OU had been a tough one study wise, however with the support of my Tutors, Student Services and my family Id managed to complete it and I felt a sense of pride and I was ready to jump into my third year of study.

My third year started well, I felt more confident with my module (the deferred one) and I was passing my iCMAs and TMAs with better marks.

Around the time I started this module again I began to grow restless in my current job. I was going into work everyday and excitedly telling people about my new found knowledge, the majority of my colleagues were polite and tried to understand and shared my enthusiasm however I felt I needed to move on from where I was and work with people that understood my passion.

I made the decision to start to look for a new position within the industry that I loved. So I looked at The OU’s job board and came across a position being advertised that matched my existing job description with my current employer. It was like it was written for me!

I decided to submit an application for the role and was invited for an interview. Interview day was filled with excitement and nerves. I remember walking up to Reception thinking “I could actually work here and how amazing would that be!”

Three hours later I found out I had been given the position! The sense of pride in myself and the sheer excitement that I would now be working in a team of like minded people, people that had been involved in studies/missions that Id read about in books or seen on the television, the people I look up to! I was like a child at Christmas.

Fast forward to present day, I am now in my fourth year of study as an undergraduate with The OU. I can proudly say that I am a member of the AstrobiologyOU Group, that I am genuinely excited about what the day will bring, to find out what ideas/plans our Director has for the Group, the vision and the long term plans for the future of AstrobiologyOU.

I now have the opportunity to attend regular seminars/talks related to my field of study. Ive had the chance to meet with high profile members of the space industry and have even sat down to dinner with them!

My thirst for knowledge is met by reading the papers/articles/abstracts that our PhD students, Post Docs and Professors write.

AstrobiologyOU is an exciting place to be at the moment and I am immensely proud to be on this journey with the Group.

Life as an OU undergraduate isn’t all plain sailing and I am still learning this 4 years down the line.

Its important to remember though that you are not on your own, there are many other students going through this same journey and its so important to make sure you stay connected with your fellow students either through forums, whatsapp groups or facebook groups so you have that support network when things do get tough.

But for all the tough times there will always be something that shines a light or gives a ray of hope, it could be a higher than expected mark on a TMA, a lightbulb moment when you finally understand something, or passing that examination/end of module assessment that you thought would never happen.

Its these things that will push and motivate you to continue with your studies!

For me I look forward to graduating and walking across the stage, with my family there as support. I will realise that all my hard work would have paid off and I will be immensely proud of myself and thankful to the OU for giving me the opportunity to pursue a career in an area I love.

To all my fellow OU students, YOU’VE GOT THIS!

 

Mrs Emma Boland

Author:

Mrs Emma Boland
is an Administrator
for AstrobiologyOU at the Open University