I chose to study Animal Behaviour and Welfare at University Centre Reaseheath to help me achieve my future career goal of becoming a zookeeper. I would particularly love to work in education within a zoo, to teach and inspire people about nature and wildlife.

Reaseheath was very helpful when I first arrived in the UK, especially with everything going on with Covid. It was a very stressful and complicated adventure to get here, but once I arrived, Claire from the UCR admissions team helped me get settled in and IT set up my Wi-Fi right away.

The safeguarding staff on the night shift also popped in to check on me as they could see me sitting in the kitchen at 3am with jet lag. They were super welcoming and brought me a bunch of snacks and sandwiches to help me out before I could go to the store the next day. Other students from the fresher’s team had also moved in early and showed me around campus and offered me rides to the store and we became immediate friends; having a group of friends was everything and it really made me feel at home.

I enjoy studying at University Centre Reaseheath because I get a much more personal experience than I would at a bigger university. All my lecturers know me by name, and you get to know everyone on campus quickly. I can go up to any member of staff, and they’ll know me and be able to help with whatever I am having trouble with. Let’s be honest, moving to another country during a pandemic is hard, so having a good support network is essential!

There’s a strong community of super weird people (I genuinely mean that in a good way!) so there’s always something going on around campus. I am also in a few societies which do a whole variety of things at the zoo and around campus so there are lots of opportunities for unique activities. One of the things I enjoy most right now is whipping up some dinner with my housemates and hanging out with the other international students.