Emma discusses her background before she became an academic and being the first in her family to go to University. She uses this experience to support students who might be in a similar position and encourages students to reach out if needed.

LEC Voices aims to provide a platform for sharing a diverse range of experiences of both staff and students across the Lancaster Environment Centre. For previous blogs please see here.

Who am I?

I’m a lecturer in human geography in LEC. I currently teach three different modules in first, second and third year, which is great as I get to interact with students at all the different stages of their degree. I’m also currently the Director of Studies for third year students, which means I support students with lots of different aspects of their academic life. I do research on food, fishing and farming, and generally how society organises the important business of feeding people!

How did I get here?

I have quite an unusual background for an academic because I didn’t do a degree after finishing school: in fact, I didn’t start my undergraduate studies until I was twenty-six. That means I had a lot of years working in different (usually minimum wage!) jobs before I became an academic. I’m from Doncaster in South Yorkshire, and it wasn’t very common for the adults around me growing up to have studied at university. In fact, I don’t think I even properly met anyone with a degree until I was seventeen—though I assume my teachers at school, and the doctor and dentist I went to, had been to university, I didn’t really talk to them outside their classroom or office.

Because of my experience of being the first in my family to go to university, helping and supporting students that are in a similar position really means a lot to me. My Director of Studies role is great for this, because I get to demystify some of the complicated academic processes for students and make their studies a little bit easier. I’m also a huge fan of the Lancaster Success Programme, which offers a lot of support, both social and academic, for students from non-conventional backgrounds who might be new to a university-type setting.

Trying to make university more of a level playing field—and provide access for those who traditionally might not have had it—is a great part of my job, and I love how the Lancaster Success Programme really helps me to prioritise this. Often, the hardest thing as a staff member is encouraging students to come to you for support. Once a student has reached out, there is so much we can do for them, but I think often students don’t even realise they can come to staff for help.

I know so many brilliant people from a similar background to me who have started at university and ended up dropping out, because it didn’t feel right for them, or they felt like they didn’t fit in. One of the things I love about working at Lancaster is that I feel like the university is behind me in trying to prevent this and give students the support they need to succeed. For any students reading this who feel that they do need help, please do remember that staff are here for you, and that our job goes way beyond just delivering lectures in the classroom.

Links to support networks: There are a number of ways to access support for students through the University Wellbeing Team. This includes finding out more about your College Advisor Team, Mental Health practitioners, Peer-support networks, Specialist support networks and more.

The Lancaster Success Programme works with students from backgrounds that are underrepresented at University.

If you would like more information about LEC Voices, or would like to be included in a future blog please contact Dr Alexandra Gormally-Sutton a.gormally@lancaster.ac.uk

Related Blogs

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  LEC Voices presents Dr Suzi Ilic, Senior Lecturer in Physical Geography and the Faculty of Science and Technology (FST) EDI Lead.

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  LEC Voices presents Dr Jackie Pates, Senior Lecturer in Environmental Science and LEC Undergraduate Programme Director.

• 

  LEC Voices presents Gabriella Goodridge, MSci in Environmental Science, on neurodiversity at the University.

Disclaimer

The opinions expressed by our bloggers and those providing comments are personal, and may not necessarily reflect the opinions of Lancaster University. Responsibility for the accuracy of any of the information contained within blog posts belongs to the blogger.