Hear from students and tutors at our 2019 graduation days as they reflect on the different ways their views were welcomed and valued, the space made for diversity and inclusion, the support they’re received throughout their learning experience, and how it all makes Queen Mary a truly special place.
We also sat down with one more of our students Anna Galli, to reflect on the journey at Queen Mary and plans for the future.
One of the things that immediately impressed me here at Queen Mary is the campus, it stil today makes me feel protected and It gives a sense of belonging, almost as if it’s a little town where all the people in it are in the same boat as you. Being an international student, another thing that I noticed very early in my time here was how diverse the student body is. During my 4 years at QMUL I have met people coming from every corner of the world, with the most different accents and the most interesting stories!
Whenever people ask me about this I know immediately what it is. Before starting at Queen Mary I was looking for an accommodation to move into for my first year and so I decided to have a look on the Queen Mary accommodation forum, here I decided to post an ad to see who else was in the same situation as me and what we could do together. In the space of 5 minutes a girl replied to my ad, and despite non being able to actually live together during first year we became really good friends. We went out to Drapers together on our first day in London, lived together for 2 years and today she is my best friend!
I think my biggest challenge for me was myself. I expect a lot from myself and at times I didn’t really meet this expectations. I studied Mathematics, which is a course full of very bright and smart people. At times I remember feeling like I wasn’t good enough because I wasn’t understanding the stuff as fast as others did and this made me really frustrated! With time, though, I have learnt that some things will come easier to me than to others and some other times it will be the other way around, and that’s fine! Challenging myself has then become one of my favourite things about my course and I have learnt that asking for help shows how much you care and are interested in what you’re studying.
After a lot of hard work I have secured myself a graduate position at a big firm in Canary Wharf. I can’t wait to see what the working world is all about