A couple of plugs at the outset:
- I'm a donor recruitment volunteer for the Anthony Nolan Trust in the UK - check them out, or find their equivalent in your country. I donated bone marrow myself through them a few years ago and it was a very easy way to make a very big difference to a stranger. The thank you card I received from the stranger whose life was saved was the best post I ever got.
- I've recently started writing for a website called Families Online. Check out one of my blogs by googling ""Families Online two under two the truth"" for a little insight into my life right now.
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As a mother to small humans, my life is pretty tied up with them these days. I'm on maternity leave with my second and spend my days up to my elbows in poster paint and smeared in the half chewed remnants of banana rice cakes. It suits me.
In a few months I'll be back at work, pursuing my career again. I'll probably still be caked in dried on food, but I'll be doing it while running a PhD programme and doing my best to excel in my professional life, where my main interest lies in student support and coaching at the moment.
If you've been through a postgraduate course of study I would be hugely interested in hearing about your experiences of the support on offer from your educational institution or individuals within it. I'm particularly interested to know how people felt it differed from (or indeed remained the same as) support available to undergraduates. Do you think postgraduates receive enough support? Should it be specialised to them as a distinct group within universities? Have you had a particularly good or bad experience, or do you have any reflections on what you would like to see? Do you work in higher education and have an opinion on any of the above?
Let me know!
Rachel Van Krimpen
Nottingham, UK
[email protected]
@rachelvank