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Katrina Fairhurst

"My time at Goldsmiths was one of the best and hardest years of my life. Yet it set me up for a career I love, friends for life and a new found confidence in my abilities that I didn't have before."

Main details

Year graduated 2018
Department Sociology
Occupation Communications Officer, Shout Out UK
Country United Kingdom

My duties currently include; running Shout Out UK's social media channels, attending and covering events through social media as well as news articles. Finding opportunities and stories for our young writers to create articles on. Sales in the form of calling schools, youth groups and businesses to sell our Political Literacy course, workshops and events to. Working closely with partner organisations in creating and delivering events, workshops and hackathons. Finding new and inventive ways to market our Political Literacy course, workshops and events to schools, organisations and businesses. Including, meeting with businesses and organisations that can fund Shout Out UK. Representing Shout Out UK at events, including party conferences, business expos and secondary school teachmeets.  Venue hire and general day to day management of the office and calendars.  Updating records and making sure that our excel sheets are updated regularly.  

My time at Goldsmiths was one of the best and hardest years of my life. Yet it set me up for a career I love, friends for life and a new found confidence in my abilities that I didn't have before. I also learnt about human rights in all their forms allowing me to develop a well-rounded understanding of the topic that an LLM would not have afforded me.  

Before I came to  London, I had completed a four year LLB in International and European Law in the Netherlands. I had studied in an International environment and was worried about losing that connection in my new course. Part of what caught my attention with Goldsmiths was the school's political awareness, the first day I came I saw a black lives matter sigh and knew this was the place for me. As well as this, by coming to Goldsmiths allowed me to stay within this international environment whilst also allowing me to focus on activism and multiculturalism both in and out of the classroom. As I worked and learnt besides people from all over the world.

Whilst studying at Goldsmiths, I worked 3 part-time jobs, two of which were through the Student Ambassador scheme. And when finishing my MA dissertation I was also working a full 40 hour week in my new career.

Whilst this year has been tough, I am proud of what I have achieved. My MA showed me that I am capable of achieving something event when times get tough. As well as that, the knowledge I gained, the skills I developed and the friends I made along the way have helped me develop not just my knowledge of human rights but also who I am as a person, my strengths, my weaknesses and what I want out of life. Through the support of the lecturers, I was able to complete my degree and graduate. As well as gain the confidence to apply for a dream job that I am now working.By being able to take modules from multiple departments I was able to not just develop new skills but also explore career options available to me through a human rights degree. Although I was already interested in the subject before my MA, the MA did secure my passions and help me decide that the human rights and political sectors were two areas that I wanted to work in, luckily through Shout Out UK I have a job that allows me to apply this love of the subject whilst also allowing me to use my ability to talk to people in a way that is positive and beneficial to peoples lives as we work on getting political education into schools throughout the UK.  

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