Our world-leading environment and sustainability research underpins a wide range of postgraduate programmes. In our Meet our Alumni series we hear from graduates of our MSc courses within the Graduate School of Environment and Sustainability and learn about their experiences at the University of Exeter, Cornwall. Today we hear from Sarah Walker who graduated from our MSc Sustainable Development course. Sarah went on to become a Sustainability Manager at Origin Coffee!
My undergraduate degree was in English and Creative Writing at Falmouth University. I have always enjoyed writing and reading but didn’t know what career I wanted from it. With my Masters, I knew it was more important to me, aligned with my values and would be a good career move. I had worked for around 10 years in between, firstly in marketing, then events, and then more business to business marketing and membership management.
At the time I signed up for the Masters programme, I was working in business support for the marine sector in Cornwall, and it was through this that I got inspired by some businesses that were doing positive things in the context of the IPCC report, school climate change strikes and the increasing awareness of climate change in our day to day. So, I decided to leave my job and retrain by doing a part-time Masters in Sustainable Development.
I was interested in postgraduate degrees relating to Conservation and Biology but didn’t have the foundational science knowledge to be able to get onto them. Also, I wanted something that was more holistic that I could apply some of my professional learning to, which I could do with a Sustainable Development degree.
My favourite thing about this course was that the academics leading it were conducting their own research at the same time, and this was relevant to what we were learning about. So, we were some of the first people to learn about new developments in that area. Having this very current knowledge base to draw from was great.
I did have to overcome my lack of scientific background (I hadn’t studied science since my GCSEs), mostly in terms of analysing data and writing scientifically. I could apply a lot of my other experience to the course, for example developing campaigns, but I was used to writing creatively, so I had to get used to writing scientifically, which had to be much more precise and factual.
Everything I learnt was complex and substantial, but as I was passionate about learning about it, I didn’t find it a struggle. I enjoyed reading all the articles and deep diving into the knowledge. I learnt how to sift through the large quantity of available data to find the best quality information. I felt that how to distinguish between what is and what isn’t quality information was taught well on the course.
In terms of the support I received, before I could commit to doing the course part-time, the academic team put me in touch with current part-time students, so I could understand how I would be able to complete the course and manage a paying job at the same time. They made me realise that I could do it, which was very important. Also, my dissertation supervisor was really committed to helping me out. He had a hard job with me as I didn’t have a scientific background. I needed a lot of assurance and he went above and beyond to help out.
As I did the Masters over 2 years, the first year was face to face teaching on campus, but then because of the Covid pandemic, my second year was online. It was interesting to see how the teaching adapted. I still felt engaged and connected, even when largely studying remotely. I won an award for student support, as I was so keen to see people, I kept tabling dissertation meetings.
In addition to lectures and seminars, there are also field work and placement opportunities. I did an assessed work placement with Tira Eco as part of one of the modules. Tira Eco developed technology to help black soldier fly farmers. It was very interesting to learn about insects, as these are potentially a massive part of the future – as a protein source, for breaking down organic matter, and for enriching soils. I developed some user guides for farmers to help optimise farming processes.
My favourite module was on marine and coastal sustainability, incorporating the social and the environmental to create the outcomes we need. So, it was ideal to then go on a field trip to Newlyn Fish Market, where we saw fish being auctioned off and learnt about the work of the marine stewardship council to ensure the catch was within the remit of being sustainable. We spoke to some representatives from the dock to understand more about sustainable fishing, how quotas are set, and what that means practically for them. That was a fantastic trip for me and shows there are all sorts of people at every level across society trying to monitor and manage what we are doing to varying degrees of success.
I also went to a community project held at the Eden Project to connect people who might have employment challenges with horticultural studies by working in the nurseries. This was a deep dive into the social factors of those kinds of projects, in elevating people and offering opportunities for people to rebalance society and consider the wider context of people’s lives.
I’m now a Sustainability Manager at Origin Coffee, a B-Corp, where I oversee the organisation’s sustainability efforts; it’s very diverse and interesting. I also became co-chair of our local B-Corp network and speak at and run events to bring people together to create more of a triple bottom line approach to business, which is very rewarding to see. I’ve spoken at industry panels about decarbonising the coffee supply chain. I’ve also worked with the sustainability working group at Truro City Council and spoken at Cornwall Chamber of Commerce’s Planet C event. This has all come from what I learnt on the degree – I wouldn’t have been in a position to do any of these things before I came to the ESI. I feel really lucky that I took the risk and it paid off.
The course attracts a good mix of people, because there’s so much you could potentially learn about, everyone ends up with quite a unique experience. Even though everyone did the same degree, there are lots of avenues to go down eg food, energy, human/nature relationships. That mix of people with different experiences and interests, made it really interesting. I’m still connected with people from my course who are now doing all sorts of different things, like working for Odd box (veg box made from surplus fruit and veg), or the Norwegian government looking at plastic reduction, or working in sustainable event management. There are so many ways you could use it.
Studying Sustainable Development in Cornwall was convenient for me. I took a big risk leaving my job to do a part-time degree. Moving my whole life as well would have been extra stress. I was already wedded to Cornwall, as I moved here for my undergraduate degree and never left. I can see how learning at the ESI in Cornwall is an inspiring context against other more urban environments. Here you can connect more to nature and this inspired my dissertation, which was about access to nature.
It was the Cornish business community that inspired me in part. And there’s a similar community and good networks within the ESI. You do feel that what you’re studying is applicable to the real world, which has been affirmed more since graduating. A lot of people down here care about the environment. When you’ve got it on your doorstep and feel connected to it, you feel empowered to protect it. We are very lucky to have 400miles of coastline to inspire us.