Edinburgh Napier University

“We've been to Cramond to do bird watching and to Arthur's Seat to do plant ID in segments”

Edinburgh Napier was the only university that had an Ecotourism programme and because it's more of a hands-on programme, that pulled me in. Every Friday we have a class where we're either in the lab at Sighthill, perhaps looking at invertebrates, or we’re out in the field. We've been to Cramond to do bird watching, to Arthur's Seat to do plant ID in segments and walked the Water of Leith.

The tutors here are very accessible, way more so than on my undergraduate in Utah. These guys are experts as well. When we go on walks and hikes, they'll pull out plants, call them by their Latin names and then tell us all about them.

“My favourite campus is Sighthill”

Although I’m based at Sighthill, I’ve been to the other campuses and that way you get more of a feel of Edinburgh. We could choose to do a tourism module or a science module and so the first trimester I chose a science one at Sighthill and last trimester I chose a tourism class and studied at Craiglockhart. My favourite campus is Sighthill though. There are five floors to the library and they are so nice – there’s even a café on the first floor. There is also a postgraduate room that has computers, couches, a microwave, tables and some games. It’s nice to go there for a bit of a break.

“I live in student accommodation at Bainfield and it’s lovely”

I live in student accommodation at Bainfield and it’s lovely – there are seven of us, all postgraduates and all from different places. I’ve also met people through trips with the SENIC club, where we went to Stirling and Oban and saw some of Scotland.

In terms of funding, there are various opportunities. I applied for several things and was delighted to be awarded a £5,000 Santander scholarship. It covered Tobago and some of my living expenses for the summer.