My Bachelor’s Degree – Finally Completed!

Moving on from a rather incompetent high-schooler I have done things I’ve never even dreamed about, starting with a gold DofE expedition to Ladakh and continuing with conducting high-level research at the UofG and Brno, helping out as a class representative, becoming the Treasurer and Captain of the UofG Karate Club, helping out with taking and structuring karate trainings and medalling at BUCS, acting as the Treasurer of the Kelvin Ensemble for 2 consecutive years (now running for my third, an all-time record!), and finally mentoring through the Czech programme YODA Mentorship. As I have enjoyed both the curriculum and the associated activities, I have decided to continue with a MRes in Biomedical Sciences at UofG, and will also continue with all of my activities, already being elected Vice-captain of the Karate Club and Treasurer of the Kelvin Ensemble.

  The path to finishing the degree was one of the hardest I’ve tread so far, however. Although my Honours Project (examining the effects of a Phot1 receptor mutation in plants) itself was a blast, the writing up the results up in dissertation form was hard, indeed I spent three all-nighters within the last 2 weeks before the submission deadline writing the dratted thing. I learned a lot, however I was to receive no reprieve. A problem struck in the form of SARS-CoV-2, and I just barely managed to move down to Cambridge to stay with my Fiancé before the lockdown started. Although soon happy from the A2 I received from my dissertation, I had to start studying for the upcoming final exams and write PhD applications as a last-ditch attempt to land places I was really interested in. The applications turned out to be insufficient, and for the first time at university, I was unable to get myself to study properly. Cooking was easy enough, I even gained 5 kg, but studying was another matter. When they finally came out, the exams turned out to be online, harder than usual, and giving us a 24-hour window to finish them. Ironically the exams I studied for the most turned out worst and vice-versa, but after spending substantially longer than the ridiculous 3 hours we were supposed to spend on each exam (“we recommend 1500 words per hour” – great, and now to add the pictures too…) and almost destroying my back I managed to pull through with an A5 as my final course grade.

  A major problem in studying was being Treasurer of the Kelvin Ensemble. As it would turn out, the Ensemble is a registered charity, and as such is completely student-led. I soon ran into 2 problems (during revision for the exams): 1) according to our constitution, I was the sole trustee of the charity, and as such was legally responsible for running all of it – this gave me the chills when I found out – and 2) the previous Treasurer before me had forgotten to submit our yearly financial report (from 2017/18!) and resolving the issues in the accounts took about a month and a half! Now I still have to finish the 2018/19 and 2019/20 accounts, but I’m slowly getting there. I came to study Biochemistry, but I swear I might as well just be an accountant instead. Regarding the Karate Club, that is one of the activities that saved my hide during revision. Our instructor and their partner decided to put up near daily Zoom sessions, with karate 3x weekly and HIIT sessions 3x weekly – they kept this out throughout the lockdown, and indeed are still running the sessions. I’m proud of what our committee and our coach have led the club to become, especially after replacing the coach we had had for 40 years last year.

  I would finally like to thank the Kellner Family Foundation for giving me the opportunity that led me to experience all this. There is no way I could’ve ever learned and gone through even half of what I did at UofG here in Czechia, and I’m very grateful for having had the chance to do so.