Back in Welcome Week, we invited students to make a wish for their Bristol Futures by tying a ribbon onto a tree and filling in an online form (with a chance to win £100). We received over 150 responses from students across all six faculties, mostly new first year undergrads alongside lots of postgrad taught students.
We hope that sharing these quotes will inspire the wider community to engage with our shared Bristol Futures, with a focus on themes of sustainability, global citizenship, and innovation and enterprise.
From studying the fragile science of the environment through my course, and the socio-economic issues arising from a changing climate in the Sustainable Futures course, I am inspired to focus my career on science outreach and communication. With the confidence gained from the Bristol Plus Award, I hope to direct this focus into media and film-making. The university has proven that everyone and anyone can make a difference in the world, no matter how small and I would like to take this mindset into my working life and dedicate my time to the world around us, giving something back.
Polly Davis, Third year, Science
I hope that as many students as possible take the Bristol Future course as personally, I have learned a lot from my course global citizenship. I believe that if Bristol Future can make a conference or meetup once a month with students of the same course not only will students be able to make new friends, but will also be able to express their ideology and get inspired by others.
Sardoddi Sai Ashish, PGT, Social Sciences & Law
I finished the Bristol Futures theme on sustainable futures, which massively inspired me to reflect on how I can show up for my community and work collaboratively to improve the quality of life for everyone, and not just the privileged few. Bristol Futures provided me with the space to reflect on how the climate crisis is also a crisis of global inequalities. The expertise of people with lived experience must be recognised in addressing the interconnected issues and challenges of the climate emergency, and the most affected communities should be at the “heart and start” of sustainability efforts. I hope that other students will have the same transformative experience that I did with Bristol Futures!
Patricia Miranda, PGT, Social Sciences & Law
Only having studied science since secondary school, I often felt like topics addressed in the humanities subjects are unapproachable to me, or that I don’t understand them enough to talk about them. This changed when I took part in the Global Citizenship Bristol Futures course. The accessible yet high quality nature of the course exceeded my expectations and has made lasting impacts in the way I think and how I see myself and others in the world. The course came at exactly the right time for me. I was in Germany on my study abroad discovering how to up-and-move my life from one country to another, and the joys and challenges involved. I also am going in to my final year at university so am thinking about my next steps. As a chemist, I can contribute to solving some of the global issues mentioned in the course, such as climate change and sharing technological advances. Solving these would have a multitude of socio-economic benefits globally … It fascinates me that changing one chemical in a product can have immense effects on humanity. This is what excites me!
Ruby Page, Fourth year, Science
I wish to help be a better person and make a difference for my family and the community. I want to be able to become a lawyer to help the needy and the disadvantaged. I want to become a part of the UK community and help make a change
Ishana Subramaniam, First year, Law
I’d like there to be equal opportunities in all aspects of society and less judgement of cultures that differ from our own.
Shola Ogunfiditimi, First year, Life Sciences
