Carolyn Hitt (English, 1987)
Carolyn Hitt is a television and radio producer, award-winning newspaper columnist, and co-founder of the independent production company Parasol Media.
It was never my idea to apply to Oxford. But it was the best idea I never had.
I’d grown up in the Rhondda valley instilled with the notion that education was sacrosanct. My grandparents, miners whose lives were cut short by this brutal industry before I was born, saw education as the escape shaft. My father was the first in his family to go to university, studying English and becoming a headmaster, and my mother became a nurse and then a lecturer.
Although it was a given I would go on to further education, Oxford seemed, a step too far. It didn’t help that my perceptions of the place had been somewhat skewed by the lavish television adaptation of Brideshead Revisited in the early 80s – complete with Hertford locations.
But my wonderful English teacher Stella Pellard wasn’t going to let my prejudices and lack of confidence hold me back. She suggested Hertford and reassured me the college was inclusive and mindful of the anxieties state school students might have.
The memory of my late mother’s tears of joy on learning I’d achieved a place is one I still cherish. Thirty years on, the recollections of the three years that followed are similarly vivid.
I remember the myriad opportunities for extra-curricular fun. My coxing career was short-lived thanks to a near miss with a pleasure boat, but the college choir, orchestra and women’s cricket XI proved more lasting forms of recreation – as did providing cartoons for the college magazine Simpkin. My early broadcasting ambitions were also realised as I made my first student radio reports on BBC Oxford.
What I gained most was the experience of being immersed in the subject I loved with guidance from the greatest intellects, and access to the riches of the Bodleian. Words have been my thing ever since and I use the skills I learned every day, from scripting a show to crafting a newspaper column.
I have taken the lesson of getting into Hertford through life. Ability has to be backed up with belief, and now I’m attempting to pay it forward by becoming a Seren Ambassador – a Welsh government project to increase the low numbers of Welsh pupils attaining Oxbridge places. The project provides a network of regional hubs designed to support pupils in developing their academic potential and gaining access to the top universities.
It has been hugely rewarding to talk to talented young people and tell them: “Of course Oxford – and Hertford in particular – is for you.” Just last week a mum got in touch to say her daughter had not considered applying but I’d given her the confidence to do so and now she has her place. I hope it turns out to be the best idea she never had too.