Meet Sophie

What did you enjoy the most?

I had a wonderful experience during my time at Newcastle University, it has truly helped me gained invaluable skills and experiences.

The best part of my degree was the opportunity to be able to get involved in practical experience of designing an exhibition, and being embedded in different cultural institutions in the North East.

Being given agency to work within a budget, design our own interpretation, and host a launch night was a key experience that I draw on now in my current role.

Having the opportunity through my degree programme to take knowledge and theory into a heritage environment was a real highlight for me.

The staff were well-connected to the museum, galleries, and heritage industries, meaning their teaching was relatable to a real-world environment and careers.

What skills and knowledge have you found useful in your career?

Being able to engage in extra-curricular activities like curating an exhibition has given me key skills that I use in my job day-to-day.

Although the plan wasn’t to do a dissertation (but I finished my degree during the first COVID-19 lockdown), completing a research dissertation brought me to a new area of the museum, gallery, and heritage industry that I hadn’t considered much: accessibility.

This directly feeds into my work on a day-to-day basis and inspired something that I am really passionate about. My degree with Newcastle also involved visiting lots of different cultural institutions in the North East, which as someone who was new to the city, gave me a real sense of ownership and fondness for these spaces.