The last year has been a very quick one and one that has seen a lot of big changes at HC Aberdeen. Our lovely founding committee (or most of them anyway) graduated last year and headed off in the big bad world to forge their own lives and careers. 12 months can go very quickly so we decided it was time for a very belated catch-up with some of our lovely ladies to hear all about whats been going on and for some inspiration of where HC can help you end up! Lets just say we’ve missed them quite a bunch…
Rhona
Age: 22
Old Committee Position: President
Degree you graduated in: English
Where are you living now: London
HC: Hi Rhona – we miss you! Give us the goss, what are you up to now you’ve left Aberdeen and graduated?
Rhona: After I graduated in June I jetted off for the best couple of months ever – road tripping around the USA – would DEFINITELY recommend. Then I moved to London in September to start a sales and marketing internship at a food start-up called Miso Tasty which was amazing! Since finishing my internship with them I have started my first big girl job as a Sales Executive in another start up, this time a drinks one called Vivid. It’s a natural energy drink made from Matcha green tea. You all need to check it out – it’s the perfect energy pick me up if you are struggling in the library!
HC: Did you think you’d be doing what you are doing now or has it been a bit of a curveball?
Rhona: When I started up Her Campus Aberdeen I did it because I thought I wanted to be a writer or journalist so starting a magazine seemed like the best way to explore that while still at Uni. But as everyone now knows Her Campus Aberdeen has become so so much more than a great magazine. It is an amazing society; an incredible fundraising machine; a hub of social media queens and throws the best events on campus! Her Campus taught me that starting up what could amount to a small company and creating something out of nothing was what I really wanted to do. There is no better feeling than seeing people enjoying and engaging with something that wouldn’t have existed if you hadn’t worked so hard to create it and I think all the founding and current members would definitely agree with me! As for food and drink – who doesn’t love food and drink – especially new exciting brands that are trying to offer you something totally different? So I feel pretty lucky to be combining -creating something new and working in food and drink for my first job!
HC: What do you miss most about Her Campus?
Rhona: I miss so much about Her Campus, I miss the creative outlet and I miss the constant pride I had over what we were all creating together. But most of all I miss the girls – the best part of Her Campus for me was that everyone was so kind and supportive to each other. Everyone was equal and everyone was there to make Her Campus Aberdeen the best it could be! I hope Her Campus Aberdeen stays this way because I think that’s the key to its success.
HC: What skills did you develop at Her Campus which you have used now?
Rhona: Without over doing it I would honestly say Her Campus was the best preparation I could have had at University for the working world. I learnt how to manage a team, what it was like to have customers, how to time manage and multi-task and I learnt how to delegate. I also learnt a lot about marketing and selling a brand which is a skill I am honing every day.
HC: Would you do things differently at university if you could go back?
Rhona: I loved University and I think if I had to do it over I would do it pretty much the same – I may have done a riskier dissertation but that’s a boring answer. Maybe I would start Her Campus earlier but it might not have been as successful if I had I had been younger. I also definitely wouldn’t have known so many amazing women to drag into it with me! I think for me University was so much more than academics, of course you are there to learn and get a good degree, but I loved that I filled my time with so much more. It is what’s made me ultimately more interesting and employable now – and it’s waaaay more fun!
HC: What’s your favourite and least favourite part of ‘adulting’?
Rhona: My favourite part of ‘adulting’ is feeling like I have my own wee home – it’s so nice to have a place that’s mine for the first time. But I really miss my family and friends, London is full of amazing things to do and see all the time so I wish all my friends were here with me to enjoy it. Also I am dreading the lack of 3 month summer this year – I don’t want to work in July.
HC: What are your plans for the future?
Rhona: I don’t really have plans for the future. I think being in your first year out of Uni is so daunting because for the first time you aren’t in an institution or on a conveyor belt so I don’t know where I will be in a year or two. I always say I’d love to start my own company but I haven’t had my million dollar idea yet. Ultimately though I want to live all around the world so maybe I’ll be somewhere exotic – or I’ll get homesick and run home to my Mum. As my Dad always says ‘the world’s my lobster’!
Freya
Age: 22
Old Committee Position: Editor
Degree you graduated in: English
Where are you living now: Auchterarder (soon to be moving to Glasgow)
HC: Hi Freya! Give us the goss, what are you up to now you’ve left Aberdeen and graduated?
Freya: I miss you guys! Everything Her Campus Aberdeen has done this past year looks absolutely amazing, and I wish I was still part of it all! I’ve honestly been having a pretty chilled out year, so there’s not much goss to spill, sorry girls! My last year at uni was pretty intense so I decided to just work for a year and potter about at home before applying for my Postgrad. I’ve managed to go on a couple of trips to France and New York and they were so much fun but I’ve also been trying (and failing spectacularly) to save up some pennies for moving.
In August I’m going to be starting the PGDE course in Primary Education at Strathclyde! I’m so excited but also ever so slightly terrified…me, a teacher?!
HC: Did you think you’d be doing what you are doing now or has it been a bit of a curveball?
Freya: This was pretty much my plan for this year, to work a bit and get onto a postgrad course, so luckily the only major stresses I’ve faced have been the interviews with universities.
HC: What do you miss most about Her Campus?
Freya: I really miss seeing the same group of lovely faces every week and discussing all sorts of different topics (it was never the same old thing every time we had a meeting!) All the girls I met at Her Campus were the loveliest, smartest and funniest girls, and I miss them loads. I actually loved my position as Editor, I got to read so many cool pieces of work every week so I guess I miss being the first set of eyes to see the new articles. But mostly I miss being a part of a society- you don’t get societies for being in the adult world, which sucks!
HC: What skills did you develop at Her Campus which you have used now?
Freya: In my interviews for the PGDE course I talked about Her Campus a lot and how it really built upon my confidence, structuring and communicational skills which is pretty important to have if you want to be a teacher! So I probably owe part of my interview successes to the experiences that I had at Her Campus.
HC: Would you do things differently at university if you could go back?
Freya: That’s a tough one! But I probably wouldn’t change much at all. University is about experiencing life’s ups and downs in a secure environment and it does prepare you for what life can throw at you. And soon I’m going to be studying for my future career, so my undergrad years at university definitely helped me get there. I sometimes think that I should have thrown myself into more opportunities, like different societies etc, but I met the most amazing friends at uni within my course and through the societies that I was in and got the degree I wanted in a really amazing subject, so why would I change anything?
HC: What’s your favourite and least favourite part of ‘adulting’?
Freya: My favourite part has been the lack of exams and scary essays- I haven’t had to worry about any of that! Not having student discount everywhere has been a bit of a bummer, so that’s definitely my least favourite thing so far.
I’ve pretty much been in student/adult purgatory for the last year, so I feel like my answers aren’t fully legit because I’m only a half-adult right now, and no doubt I’ll have more scary essays to write this coming year. #prayforFreya
HC: What are your plans for the future?
Freya: Well I’m hoping to marry Leonardo DiCaprio (he’s being a bit shy just now, but that’s cool, I’ll wait). But seriously, I just want to get through the PGDE without having too many mental breakdowns.
I’ve thought about teaching abroad or at least doing a little bit of travelling in the future, but I’ll cross that bridge when I get to it. A great job and a home of my own, that’ll keep me happy. Oh, and a puppy!
Emily
Age: Feelin’ 22
Old Committee Position: Treasurer (dealing with the dolla billz)
Degree you graduated in: BSc (Hons) Nutrition
Where are you living now: East Calder – just outside of Edinburgh
HC: Hey Emdawg – give us the goss, what are you up to now you’ve left Aberdeen and graduated?
Emily: WELL. As if I would turn down an opportunity to overshare about my life. I haven’t quite got around to becoming a fully-fledged adult as of yet. I’m just finishing off the last bits and pieces of my PGDE in Primary Education, which sounds lovely, but has actually been an incredibly intense year and I am quite ready to hibernate for the whole of summer. I’m finding teaching incredibly rewarding, however, the (apparently) necessary essay writing not quite so…. But as if universities would ever make life easy for ya. Totes ready for teacher lyf come August though… BRING IT ON!
Potentially the biggest goss I’ve got for you is that despite all my man ranting and oversharing through my blogs about boys and men and males. I actually have myself a rather lovely and wonderful boyfriend – potentially only because I blocked my HC articles from his internet though. But yes, the HC single lady (after Bey) is now not so single. And I didn’t even need to swipe right for him – just sayin’ I wasn’t a Tinderella after all.
HC: Did you think you’d be doing what you are doing now or has it been a bit of a curveball?
Emily: I was pretty sure for a long while that I was going to disappear into the world of teaching kiddies so I’m very happy with what’s going on just now in life.
HC: What do you miss most about Her Campus?
Emily: I miss my fwiiiends. The girls I met through HC are absolute gems in life and we had the best laughs at socials and meetings – especially when food and alcohol was involved. Can we just take ourselves back to AGM night out 2015? BEST NIGHT. Not the best morning after though…
HC: What skills did you develop at Her Campus which you have used now?
Emily: I have definitely improved my team work skills. Setting up and managing HC was a challenge for our committee but we were a great team and great friends, we got on with the job and (I think) we were very successful. Being able to communicate with your peers is essential for the working world, even if you don’t agree. These are skills that I use every day in school!
HC: Would you do things differently at university if you could go back?
Emily: Well… I know what my friends would say… remove myself from all drama. I do totally agree with this. But despite some big upheavals and challenges through uni, it’s shaped me who I am today and I learnt so so SO many life lessons. And also I should have taken FULL advantage of Lidl bakeryevery day. What summer bod?
HC: What’s your favourite and least favourite part of ‘adulting’?
Emily: My favourite part of my semi-adulting is having the responsibility of being a teacher and seeing my little munchkins actually learning stuff I have taught them (after I’ve spent hours on Wikipedia trying to learn it before them).
Least favourite is certainly a lack of dolla from the bank of mum and dad. My bank account ain’t so healthy anymore.
HC: What are your plans for the future?
Emily: Well I’ll be a qualified teacher in a couple of weeks so that… but my big plan is to save up some pennies in the next few years and move abroad for a year so that I can do some travelling and have an extremely delayed gap year!
Good luck to all the future HC girls, this year has certainly does us proud and I’m so very sure all the sparkling pink girls will carry it on throughout the years.
Anna
Age: 22
Old Committee Position: Social Secretary
Degree you graduated in: History
Where are you living now: Aberdeen
HC: Hi Anna! Give us the goss, what are you up to now you’ve left Aberdeen and graduated?
Anna: Well, I left Aberdeen and moved back to Glasgow to try and find my feet, which I then found brought me back to Aberdeen. I now work for BrewDog! I joined in January and have loved every minute of the crazy adventure.
HC: Did you think you’d be doing what you are doing now or has it been a bit of a curveball?
Anna: It’s been a complete curveball! If someone told me when I graduated that in 6-8 months I would be working in a brewery, I would not have believed them. However, it’s been the best curveball ever, I love my job and the company. It’s so much better than any 1st big girl job I could have wished for.
HC: What do you miss most about Her Campus?
Anna: All the girls! It was being like part of a family with loads and loads of sisters. You knew there was always someone just around the corner that would be up listen to you moan about whatever was stressing you out, over a cup of tea (or cocktail, depending on the rant!)
HC: What skills did you develop at Her Campus which you have used now?
Anna: Organisation – how to organise big groups of people at last minute.
Being confident in what you do – if you make a decision you have to believe it is for the best and own it! There were loads of time in HC when I doubted if events etc. would work and in the end most of them did and people had an ace time. It taught me to have faith in what I do as it often all works out in the end.
HC: Would you do things differently at university if you could go back?
Anna: There are loads of things I would do differently but then I guess I might not be where I am now. It’s hard to look back on such a massive and poignant part of your life and wish you did things differently. I think I just accepted that I did what I did because I wanted to and because I enjoyed it. My experience would not have been the same if I went back and changed things and then I could be asked the same question again – you will never be able to everything you want at Uni, there just simply isn’t enough time, you just have to take what you did do and as long as you look back on it fondly then I guess you made the right choices and I can say I look back on my years at Uni very fondly!
HC: What’s your favourite and least favourite part of ‘adulting’?
Anna: Favourite – making your own deadlines and taking responsibility for your own actions. What you do as an adult affects you most of all, there aren’t so many people to answer to.
Least – being exhausted most of the time, day time napping just isn’t a thing anymore!
HC: What are your plans for the future?
Anna: The future? Every day holds something new for me so I just take it a day at a time, I love what I’m doing at the moment and I’m really happy where I am, I work for a company that I am proud to be a part of and I think that’s really important for me so as long as I continue to do that then I guess my future will shape itself.
As you can see almost none of our HC girls have ended up where the expected to be when they graduated this time last year but all have ended up happy and healthy elsewhere. HC has given them so many transferable skills and memories which we hope will stick for the rest of their lives. Thanks so much to our lovely HC Aberdeen alumni for taking the time out of their busy lives to give us the lowdown on whats happening with them now. You’ll always be a part of our HC family <3