The theme of World Environment Day 2024 is ‘Our land. Our future. We are #GenerationRestoration’. A few of our beneficiaries in receipt of higher education assistance are studying a degree in environmental sciences and we thought it would be helpful to get a student’s perspective.
One of our Avon & Somerset beneficiaries, Oliver, is happy to share a few thoughts about his experience of Police Children’s Fund and why environmental sciences is his chosen degree subject.
“I became a beneficiary of Police Children’s Fund back when I started my university journey in my foundation in 2021, when the country was still recovering from the Covid pandemic. Now, three years later, I am still a recipient of their support and I’m sincerely grateful.
I was introduced to the charity when my dad had to retire early from his policing career due to ill-health, meaning he could not fulfil his duties as he would’ve done. Thankfully he is doing very well now and is feeling a lot more stress-free in his retirement but at the time it was a stressful period. The funding I’ve received has enabled me to focus a lot more on my degree, with the fund being generous enough to pay for a laptop that I’ve used extensively in my studies too.
Even throughout my degree it has not been linear, with me originally starting in biological sciences but it not feeling entirely right so I switched in year 1 to environmental science. This turned out to be one of the best decisions I ever made, as my limited knowledge of the natural world and my passion for it grew exponentially.
I’ve even been fortunate enough to go to fantastic natural areas like Dartmoor and Eryri national parks which gave me perspectives on the environment I would never have gained otherwise. Still, I am all the more aware from my course how fleeting this may be, that due to environmental decline these pockets of nature need attention brought to them, or they may slip away. So, even though one person can’t make a huge difference on their own, by all chipping in where we can to do our thing to help the environment, we can hopefully keep it that little bit greener.”