BA Geography, UCL
Project Coordinator, Chiswick House and Gardens Trust
Although I did not know it at the time, my passion for Geography and gardening began at a young age upon visits to my local protected areas, including Chiswick House & Gardens and Royal Kew Botanic Gardens. This fascination continued to university-level, where I was exposed to a plethora of theories across all the Social Sciences, aiding my level of interdisciplinary knowledge and application. I now specialise in sustainability and environmental management, in addition to Black British identity and space-making.
Through blood, sweat and lots of caffeine, I am now a First-Class Geography graduate of University College London, a Global Top 10 University. From being in the lowest sets during Primary School, attending an Ofsted rated: “needs improvement” state Secondary School, not being a straight-A student (I received majority-B’s in my 13 GCSE’s), attaining DDDU for my AS Levels and retaking this Lower Sixth year to later achieve BBB, onto a final A-Level grading of A*BB, THEN being diagnosed with dyslexia after my final exams but just months before my university experience began was quite the journey…
It did not stop there: wanting to enrich the experience of those surrounding me, I campaigned and successfully became the President of the UCL Geography Society, one of the UK’s largest and oldest student-led Geography Societies. Here, I led an all-female committee, implementing three new roles, including a Diversity & Outreach Officer, to become more inclusive of the cultures, genders, and sexualities representing UCL. I also mobilised the first Decolonising the Curriculum agenda within UCL Geography, organised the first LGBTQ+ inter-Geography Society and Departmental gathering, and initiated the first joint UCL x KCL Geography Winter Ball.
I took full advantage of numerous opportunities during university, including an integrated Year Abroad at the University of Sydney, Australia. Not only for my academic fortification, but also to immerse myself under differing international, cultural and political circumstances through learning about Aboriginal History, and interning at EY and ANZ. I met an array of incredible people and created a global network friends and connections! Upon travelling around Australia, I visited the world’s oldest continually surviving rainforest, the Daintree Rainforest, as well as Uluru, the Great Barrier Reef and went skydiving!
During my Final Year, I achieved within top 5% of my environmental governance module and became my Geography Department’s nominee for the national Royal Geographic Society: Race, Culture and Equality Working Group Dissertation Prize, of which I won 1st place. This is especially significant as my dissertation topic, within Black Geographies, was not an area I had previously learnt or was taught in UCL Geography.
Today, I have 4 jobs, including one as a Project Coordinator of a conservation programme, and I have received both my Masters application offers from the University of Oxford and London School of Economics where I will continue developing my passion for Geography.
I am Adwoa, a young Black female of African, Caribbean and English heritage from a low-income and single-parent London background.
I am what a Geographer looks like.