Today we speak to a 2nd year Media & Communications student who has had a pretty busy 2 years at BCU since starting. They have made the most of every opportunity given to them, let’s go and meet Ethan Horton!
Hi Ethan, it’s awesome getting to chat with you today! Please tell us what course you’re in & a little about what a typical day looks like for you?
“Hi, and first thank you for getting in touch and giving me the amazing opportunity to talk to you.
I am a Media and Communications (Radio) student and my typical day at BCU is never really the same I commute to University every day and so the start of my day will consist of me listening to music or most recently Podcasts and radio shows which relate directly to my course and often help me to learn different techniques when it comes to my presenting style.
The structures of my lectures can often be set between both Parkside in the TV and Radio studios and the Curzon lectures. Learning about various media aspects practically and theory based. Outside of lectures varying on the day I am typically volunteering/preparing for my outside of University activities at both Switch Radio as part of their Sports coverage team and Radio Plus Coventry where I have my own Specialist radio show as well as being a part of Scratch Radio.”
How many of the Grad+ awards have you completed & when did you achieve these?
“Overall, I have achieved all my awards, including my Bronze, Silver, Gold and Platinum. I started my award in my first year getting my Bronze award in December 2019. Whilst studying I would later gain my Silver award in January 2020 after working for the BCUSU and travelling to Hanyang University as part of the Summer school scheme. These skills would also transfer to my Gold award which I would complete in June 2020. I then later received my final Graduate+ Platinum certificate at the end of June.”
We hear you took part in a summer school last year that saw you travelling to Korea! Tell us about the experiences you had there?
“It was a surreal experience. And one I would never forget. I didn’t know what to expect at first once arriving and thanks to both Universities I was able to experience some amazing activities I had never done before. I was able to make some amazing friends with people from around the world and travel to some amazing places I never thought I would before. It has encouraged me to further challenge myself as well as learn more about different cultures like I was during my time in Seoul.”
You told us you also volunteer at several local radio stations! Can you tell us about the different roles you carry out & the new skills you’ve learnt?
“Currently I volunteer at two radio stations, with the first of these being a Korean specialist radio show which I created back in 2018 and is a brand that I created and since built upon this. For this station I present the show alone as well as doing social Media promoting when I am live as well as the content I am producing and finding all the songs and stories to talk about on the show.
Another station I also present at is for switch radio where I am part of the sports team, covering the football club Sutton Coldfield Town FC where I do a mixture of commentating/punditry on match day as well as sub-editing and interviewing after games and during mid-week training.”
We know you are involved with Scratch Radio at BCU too, tell us about what you do there & how you got involved originally?
“I originally had heard about Scratch Radio on my open day from one of the media lecturers and thought it would be a great opportunity to learn about student radio and about radio from a different perspective. So, I originally joined Scratch in my first year but applied to be a part of the tech team which would unfortunately not do anything and mean that I wouldn’t have the opportunity to be a part of the team. This year has really been a breath of fresh air and it really starts from the top as I was given the opportunity to present and produce a show for Scratch and given training which I had never really been given before.”
We hear you travelled to Ukraine for a study abroad trip too whilst you were in college, this sounds like a great opportunity! What did you get up to?
“Honestly it feels like a blur, while I was able to travel to Hanyang University for 4 weeks I was only in Ukraine for 8 days and was a completely surreal experience. It was the first time I would travel alone and was arranged with one of my mutual friends who I went to college with. To be honest it was completely different from my time in Seoul as it really felt like this experience was all about the people as everything we did would be done together whether that would be travelling together or during classes it was an amazing bonding experience for all of us and being at the age of 18 this really had a huge impact on me.”
If you had to give advice to a new 1st year media student who was interested in starting their Grad+ award with us, what would you say?
“I would say while it looks a lot on paper with all the different categories, once you start looking into the award and start a lot of the different categories they really link into the course and are probably things that you never thought were possible.
I truly believe that Graduate+ over the past two years have opened me up to the different possibilities inside of the university and helped me go out of my comfort zone in terms of trying new things. And so, I would like to say overall that it is definitely worth giving a go and that all these skills really help when applying for future jobs.”
Finally, what does the future hold for you next Ethan?
“I am currently going into my final year at BCU and so I am extremely excited about entering my final year and finishing what has been an amazing experience at BCU and possibly gain my TEFL certificate and continue travelling aboard and my media experience.”
- Wow, what a true breathe of fresh air Ethan is! He’s an awesome example of someone who has come to BCU & has gotten involved both in & out of the classroom, taking advantage of our amazing facilities, societies & opportunities. If you’d like to share your journey with us we’d love to hear from you! Please email the team at graduate+@bcu.ac.uk & a member of the team will get back to you.