Shauna Kearns, Religious Studies

I chose to study Religious Studies at Kent because the course covers all different world religions. At most of the other universities I was looking at it was mainly theology, whereas here we study a wide range of religions and it's interesting to learn about things that I haven't learned about before such as Hinduism and Buddhism, for example. 
I find this course challenging because there's just so many new concepts to learn. So, with Hinduism for example, there's all these Sanskrit words that you need to learn and like incorporate into your essays, which I'm not used to doing, so it's like challenged me and inspired me to learn new things and even like study a part of a language that I never thought I would be able to study. 
So, I'm currently working on my dissertation at the moment and my dissertation is covering Islamic women and whether we perceive Islam to be a sexist religion or whether it's just our Western concept of sexism that makes us think that women are perceived differently in Islam. So, I'm working on that at the moment and it's really interesting because I get to do my own research, use all the books that I have in the library, and I'm finding out so much more about what was taught in the Koran regarding women and Islamic dress than what is perceived in the media and how different it is there. 
The facilities here at Kent are really good. I'm always in the library using the books and the computers that are on offer and the library research website where you can find all of your books is really helpful because they offer things that you wouldn't have looked at before.
And the support from staff here is very good, like I can always go to my lecturer and ask if I have any questions I can ask them for help and they'll reassure me and help me along my way. 
The skills that I have learned in university have really helped me for my future. For example, I've taken part in a lot of presentations, speaking to my lectures and seminar leaders about a project that I'm working on. I've also had a careers advice meeting because I wasn't entirely sure what I wanted to do after uni and they helped me like think about my options and what I can do using my degree and there is a wide range of things that I can do. 
So, I've learned a lot of skills here that will help me including just talking to lots of people in my seminars, I'm not used to being the one to speak out in front of everyone so it's good to have that skill so I can use it in interviews and in jobs that will help me for the rest of my life.
So, after university I'm considering doing another year here in data analytics and adding that on to my degree, so that I'll have some more skills that I can use in a job that I may want to do. I'm thinking of perhaps maybe going into work in the civil service or being a data analyst like incorporating all of those skills or I've considered working with charities because I've done a lot of volunteer and charity work here at Kent, so it would be good to put those skills to use when I finish my degree.