Miranda Reilly (English, 2015)
Miranda is a second year English student and is campaigning for a better and inclusive environment for disabled people. You can read about her involvement with the Oxford Students Disability Community here.
When I was 15, I was so debilitatingly shy that I was looking into the Open University’s online courses, terrified of the idea of physically going to any university, let alone one that needed an interview to get in! I don’t have any older siblings, and my parents both left education at 16 – most of my information about university came from the movies, so while other people considering Oxford were worrying that the students didn’t party enough (they do!), I was worrying that university was no place for an introvert.
I was invited to locally-held access talks and told about UNIQ, Oxford’s absolutely-free summer school exclusively for year 12 state school students. I decided that UNIQ would, at the very least, be a good test: if I could make it through a week, maybe I could make it through a term? I applied and was selected and, to my surprise, had an amazing time: I was struck by how accepting everyone was of each other, and that’s something I’ve found to be true as a student at Oxford as well – there are so many different personalities here, but, on the whole, people are very happy for you to be you.
I was dreading starting university but my tutors turned out to be amazingly supportive, the other students on my course were great, and, bit by bit, I started adjusting to Oxford and university life: it took me longer than most, but I got to know people, and one of the highlights of my life turned out to be finding the Oxford Students’ Disability Community (OSDC) in my third term here. I’ve met wonderful people through it and my 15-year-old self wouldn’t have believed I’d be doing 10% of the things I’ve done through OSDC.
Oxford has allowed me to develop hugely as a person. I can honestly say that I’ve grown more here than I ever grew in all my years of secondary school, and achieved more – in terms of both extracurricular and academic work – than I ever thought possible for me, and Hertford has been part of the supportive environment in which I’ve been able to do that.