Geography
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Geographers are at the heart of many of the solutions to the world’s environmental problems. From the siting of dams to planning the transport systems for big cities, geographers see the big picture of human impact on our planet. Many students don't realise that geography also equips them with a broad range of personal learning and thinking skills such as teamwork, independent enquiry and creative thinking - all highly valued by employers.
Geography Resources
icould Video Interviews
Linda Kirstein - Research Fellow
Linda Kirstein is a natural environmental Research Fellow at the University of Edinburgh, "Basically I do research in geological sciences focussing on research in Taiwan, looking like how a mountain was built and what the sediments that are preserved in the geological formations can tell us about that process". She has carried out research in many different places around the world, following her passion for geology.
Dave Robertson - Professor of Applied Logic & Head of School Elect
Dave Robertson is a professor of applied logic and the head of school elect for the School of Informatics at the University of Edinburgh. He says "My research is related to the internet and to building large scale systems on the internet. So the sort of systems that I'm interested in are the one's that are composed of lots and lots of little processes, the sort of things that are on phones and computers".
Patrick Hadoke - Senior Academic Fellow in Pharmacology
Patrick Hadoke is a Senior Academic Fellow in pharmacology at the University of Edinburgh, he describes it as "a combination of designing and implementing research projects and teaching graduate, undergraduate and visiting students and also supervising post doctoral research scientists". Despite being more interested in rugby than studying for A levels, Paddy made it to university and discovered a passion for chemistry and biological sciences.
Sir Richard Branson - Founder and President, Virgin Group, Global Entrepreneur, Adventurer and Philanthropist
Sir Richard Branson founded Virgin in 1970 - it started off as a mail order record retailer. Today the Virgin Group is made up of around 200 companies spanning 30 countries with involvements in leisure, travel, tourism, mobile, broadband, TV, radio, music festivals, finance, health and more. Not bad for a guy who left school with "pretty well no qualifications"!
Vittoria Rubino - Senior Manager
Vittoria Rubino is a Senior Manager at icould and a single mum. She manages to balance her time between her job and her son - "every minute that I have spare, I spend time with him". Vittoria came here from Italy with no plan, and after several unsatisfying jobs she taught herself about computers and eventually found her place at icould - "...the project itself was so inspiring and it gave me a chance to give back lots, especially to young people who, like me, had no idea who they wanted to be".
Diana Docwra - Beauty Therapy Lecturer
Diane Docwra is a Beauty Therapy Lecturer at Cambridge Regional College. She is a qualified beauty therapist, and had to take more qualifications to become a teacher while she was doing a full-time job. "You do think you're never going to get it done, but you find a way... It's a good career move and it pays off in the end."
Debbie Casey - Head of Sports, Leisure & Science
Debbie Casey is Head of Sports, Leisure and Sciences at Cambridge Regional College. She spends a lot of time in work at meetings with staff and students, so she values her down time as an opportunity to do something like "going out for a walk on a nice, windy day on one of the beaches on the North Norfolk coast."
Steve Gayfer - Teaching & Learning Development
Steve Gayfer is Teaching and Learning Development Manager and Lecturer at Cambridge Regional College. He was a pipe fitter and welder, and got his first job in Further Education as a technician to support lecturers. He set his sights on becoming a lecturer. He loves teaching practical skills to practical people.
Patricia Curl - International Student Recruitment Officer
Patricia Curl is International Student Recruitment Officer at Cambridge Regional College. She had a business that involved travelling round the country until her second child was born. He was very ill, so she decided it was time to do something less stressful. Now she's ambitious for her children rather than herself.
Parveen Aslam - Administrator
Parveen Aslam is an Administrator at Cambridge Regional College. She has a degree in sociology and law. In the future she would like to take up a career in law, but that's on hold at the moment because she's keen to start a family. "At the moment an admin job is good for me and I'm making the most of that."
