My name's Paul Nelson and I've been
studying a BSC in Natural Sciences with a year abroad.
I'd always had an interest
in sciences but a broad range of
sciences and the one thing that a UEA Natural Sciences degree offers is
that broad range. I've studied everything
from chemistry and physiology through to
meteorology and geology.
First of all as a mature student was
just getting through the first year.
You find when you come back to education
that you lose a bit of confidence and
you worry about whether you're going to be
able to compete with the younger
students, so getting to the end of the
first year and passing it and passing it
reasonably well was a great source of
pride. The other thing is that I was
lucky enough to do a year abroad as part
of this degree and went to an Australian
University, Griffith University on the Gold Coast. Whilst I was there I took part
in a citizen science project called
Mangrove Watch. I was able to work in all
areas and do a bit of project management
for it, so to be able to take all the
skills that I've learned from UEA,
transfer them to something very
practical at Griffith University and at
the end of it realised that that was
possibly a job opportunity in the future;
that also made me proud.
For anybody studying Natural Sciences
the most important thing I think is to
try and get a variety of stuff the one
thing that makes UEA Natural Sciences
stand out from any other course
is the fact that you have possibilities
to do so many different things in so
many different areas,
so please use that opportunity!
