Opportunities

Baby, It’s Cold Outside…

/ Ellie Gordon

… But this is a warm hello!

Hi, my name is Ellie, a third year Philosophy major at Lancaster University, who you will (if you so wish), be able to follow as I journey through my final year here at Lancaster in the following weeks to come. To introduce – who am I? well, I am a 21 year old student from Jersey, Channel Islands. I chose to come to Lancaster because it allowed me to pursue an eclectic education following my achievement of the International Baccalaureate Diploma. My current modules include Philosophy of Work, Politics of Cultural Diversity, Seminar in Contemporary Moral Philosophy, and my Dissertation, which focuses on the ideal of authenticity and social media. You won’t find me on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter or the like, but if you are curious about what I am studying or what I get up to in my daily life at Lancaster, count yourself lucky – you can follow me here!

Since studying at Lancaster I’ve been able to pursue a broad range of subjects throughout the PPR department, including Politics in my second and third years, and religion in my first, (and of course Philosophy is my major, so I have pursued different Philosophy modules throughout). The vast number of combinations of modules you can take is something quite unique to Lancaster and something which really ought to be taken advantage of; if you have even a remote interest in something your major doesn’t offer directly, (in my case, this was an Economics For The Real World module in second year) or maybe you are entirely clueless about a particular study, these are equally good reasons to pursue something new and broaden your horizons exponentially. Another example is first year in which I was also able to take an English module, which I found to be an excellent opportunity, not only to prove that I could do it, but because it linked many aspects from other unsuspecting modules and enhanced my writing skills.

  • Well, what have I been up to in the past two weeks?

We are currently in week three of Michaelmas term, and I must say the settling back in after a long summer holiday and trips away was a struggle. (Summertime I was lucky enough to receive some funding from my college (mighty Furness) which subsidised part of my trip to Los Angeles and Las Vegas, in return for a report on my venture.)

Yes… a struggle… particularly as it’s now dark upon waking up, dark when returning from university, and significantly colder than Los Angeles…

But it’s certainly not all bad. This week I was given the opportunity to write to you on behalf of my department once a fortnight (or maybe even once a week if your particularly lucky), and for this I must say I feel immensely proud.

Other than that, this week I’ve managed to get up at a reasonable 7am, hit the gym, and study for a few hours prior to my midday lectures. In my Seminar On Contemporary Moral Philosophy, I’ve presented on Chapters 2-5 of Parfit’s Reasons and Persons which was intensely laborious, but incredibly rewarding to get my head round and present my results to my seminar group. I’ve also officially started writing my dissertation on the way in which authenticity is a genuine ideal we ought to take seriously and the way in which social media has detrimental effects on our pursing of this ideal.

Oh, and I’ve booked tickets for SugarHouse’s “House of Horrors” event for Halloween: I’m going as a “Blessed Babe,” probably because the outfit only set me back £11.

If you made it this far, well done, and thank you for reading. I will catch up with you again soon.

Ellie

Opportunities at Lancaster

/ Pietro

Hi everyone!

 

This week, I’m going to to tell you a bit more about some of the opportunities you can find here at Lancaster if you’re interested in gaining new skills, improving your employability, and put what you study into practice. Among the projects I’ve taken part in over the last couple of years, there’s two I’d definitely recommend: the Richardson Institute Internship Programme and the Lancaster Mentoring Programme.

The Richardson Institute is the oldest Peace Studies research centre in the UK, and it is based at Lancaster University. Every year, it offers an internship programme directed at students in their second and third year, which starts in October/November and ends in June. Students get to work with external organisations, such as International Alert, Maslaha, the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, and RadicalisationResearch, to produce research reports on socially relevant topics. Last year, for example, I worked in a group of about 6 people, tackling issues to do with injustice in the UK education system. I found the internship particularly valuable, in that it allowed me to gain research experience outside of the sort of research you get to do for your degree.

The second opportunity I mentioned is the Mentoring Programme. This project, too, is run every year, and it helps you gaining a better understanding of what to do after uni; or, if you know that already, it allows you to sharpen your knowledge of your chosen career path. Students get paired with professionals in the field that they express an interest in, and they then meet their mentors on a regular basis, learning about their job, about how to pursue specific careers, how to gain experience relevant to particular jobs, how to write a good CV, etc. For me, the Mentoring Programme has been very helpful: my mentor helped me gaining a better idea of my future plans, aided me with choice of postgraduate study, and gave me tips about how to do well in applications.

I think it’s important to study in a place where you can find opportunities like the ones I’ve just described. They allow you to understand what you like doing, what your potential is, and what you’re good at: all things that is in general highly beneficial to know, but perhaps particularly so when you need to decide what to do with your life after uni.