Calvin: American Studies and History alumni

What are the most important skills you gained from your degree?

"Critical thinking, working together, and being able to deliver at pace.

Critical thinking is the biggest one. It allows you to understand different
perspectives, diverse sets of views. In the Civil Service, that’s a major thing
because we’re dealing with a diverse range of stakeholders.

Working together, that’s big across all kinds of careers. In my degree, it came in the form of group projects, poster tasks, as well as just classroom discussion.
From that, you form these effective partnerships and you can keep those. Once
you leave uni, you have those alumni connections.

Delivering at pace is the biggest skill for going into the Civil Service. It is one of the key behaviours that the Civil Service assesses on. It can be summed up as
taking responsibility for delivering timely and quality results with focus and
drive. That is just the uni experience, isn’t it! Uni, and a degree with
American Studies, will be able to teach you how to prioritise your time."

How did your course inspire you?

"I didn’t get the A level grades I wanted. I thought that my chances of going to university were behind me. I found that the Foundation Arts programme - which allows you to do an extra year and enter with lower grades - allowed me to join the university.

My time at Nottingham showed me that I was capable of doing something I never thought possible. I remember in my last year, in my final month, I had about four different essays due, alongside my dissertation. If I’d asked myself in 2018 when I started if I thought any of that was possible I would have said no. I
didn’t think I was that kind of person. I’m really glad and thankful to the
University of Nottingham and to both the History and American and Canadian
Studies departments that they gave me that opportunity. I came out with a first
class degree, so evidently I did alright!"

Was there a staff member who really inspired or helped you?

"Peter Watts and Doug Ingram from the Foundation Arts programme. They’re the people who gave me a chance to go to the university. I met them in an interview and they gave me a place and the chance to prove myself. I’m forever thankful to them for giving me that chance.

On the American and Canadian Studies side, I could not have completed my degree without the help of Steph Lewthwaite. She was my dissertation supervisor, she taught me in my second year, and she became someone I could talk to about all things academic. She became someone who was genuinely interested in my personal progression as well as my academic progression.

I had so many amazing lecturers and tutors. I know that if you give a degree at Nottingham a chance, you will experience that as well. The department is there to help you thrive."

Did you know what career you wanted to move into after graduation?

"In my final year I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do. I started the year thinking I was going to be a curator, and I was going to look for jobs in museums across England or maybe in America. Then as I did my year, and did some work experience schemes (which I highly recommend!), I started to realise maybe that wasn’t what I want to do right at this moment and I wanted to make a more tangible impact on the political scene.

I started looking at careers in the Civil Service. The moment that my current job came across my desk, I thought this is a perfect opportunity to get involved in
something that’s very ‘current affairs’ and allows me to be at the forefront of
something.

After I graduated, I had that time to think. I knew that with my degree I would find something that I would enjoy, that would make the most of my skills, and that I could progress in. That was my thinking there."

What do you enjoy about your current job?

"How close I am to the forefront of government! It seems like every day I’m at work I’m assisting on a new policy that affects the geopolitical space. 

Everything that I do changes the precedent for the previous time and people have called on my work and used it as examples. That’s amazing for me to be in a government department and have my work cited. 

I also enjoy working with so many talented individuals. I’m in a very young team but there’s still so many people who are just a few years older than me who’ve seemingly seen the world and they have so much experience and so much knowledge. I’m trying my best to draw on and use that to advance my own career, but also learn about the space I’m working in at the moment."

What are your future career ambitions?

"At the moment, probably to remain where I am in the Treasury and to build a career there. I’m really enjoying sanctions, I found that it’s the perfect thing for
me. It’s a perfect blend of current affairs and finance. Because I came from a
very heavy essay-based subject, in American Studies, I’m naturally built for
this kind of role.

In the future, who knows, maybe I’ll stay at the Treasury, maybe I’ll go into the private sector and look at how to navigate complex geopolitical events from the banks’ point of views. My degree is so flexible, I can do what I enjoy, I can do what I want, and I’m only 25 so I’ve got plenty of time to make my decision and move around if I want to. Nothing’s set in stone."

What does ‘success’ look like for you?

"Tangible results. It was the same at university, success for me was how well I did, it was the quality of my results.

Also, I think success comes from working together, you can have success in a team, you don’t have to just have individual success. For me, success has translated from a very individualistic thing to now working as part of a team. Every bit of work I do now feeds into the goals of the organisation itself."

What advice would you give to students who are considering a Faculty of Arts degree?

"Don’t be put off by things on the internet and social media which say that arts and humanities degrees are worthless, or they don’t give you enough skills, or
they’re not applicable in the real world.

So many people jump to STEM subjects, and they see them as the be all and end all. That’s perfectly fine - if you love maths, if you love engineering, go for
that. But don’t be put off by people who say you can’t get anywhere with a
humanities degree. What social media doesn’t tell you is how flexible arts and
humanities degrees are.

An arts degree is worth just as much as any other degree and, if I’m being a little bit biased, I think it’s worth more because you gain these critical thinking skills
which employers value above all else."