Holly Mason from Chichester University

This morning we welcomed ex-student Holly Mason, who is currently in her final year at Chichester University on a Film Production degree, and also works for the university as an ambassador.

Holly shared her memories of being a student during the Covid pandemic and how difficult this made it to decide whether university was for her, when she could not visit universities in person and was concerned about the cost, and especially in view of so much of the learning moving online. She felt that university was probably not for her, but applied anyway, and did as much research as she could on the unviersity websites. In the end Holly decided that Chichester would be her first choice as it was the only local university that was offering in-person visits, and she was impressed with their state-of-the-art facilities and the friendly staff at their Bognor campus. She also liked the idea of their smaller classes and a more interactive learning approach with seminars and workshops forming a big part of the degree, as opposed to large scale lecture theatres.

Holly completed a year of Media Studies before switching to Film Production. In her first year she lived in hall, thereafter she moved back home and commuted from Angmering but felt that living on site was a really good option, despite living locally, as it heped her to feel more involved with the whole university experience, to make friends more effectively and to manage her anxiety better. 

Over the course of her degree she has decided that script writing and editing are what she really enjoys and will hope to go into this as a career in futrure, meanwhile she taking her time to work out what her next steps will be.

Holly's advice to current 6th formers is to keep your options open. Even if you think University is not for you, it presents so many opportunities for personal development. Holly has met some amazing people and had a go at things she would not have considered previously, and has grown in confidence. Holly had a change of heart after the first year of Uni but this was fine: it gave her time to 'make mistakes' and find out what she really wanted to do. She also wanted to reassure students that they do not need to have their whole future planned out right now - take one step at a time and see where it takes you!