A Bristol mum has told of how going to university gave her a passion after she'd reached a point in life when she didn’t want to get up in the morning. Charlotte Harman said she headed to university to 'make a new path' for herself after getting divorced and facing a future as a single mum with two small boys.
Now the 39-year-old from Westbury has completed her final year exams at the University of Bristol, after studying for a BA degree in archaeology and anthropology. She is currently writing her application to continue with a Master’s.
And to top it all off, Charlotte was awarded the Outstanding Plus Award, which is only given to eight high achievers every year. She said getting the award was amazing. "When my category came up at the award ceremony, my eldest slipped his hand into mine and squeezed it. He said: "If you win, we can get ice cream to celebrate and if you don’t, we can get ice cream to cheer you up.”
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Charlotte said there was lots of hard work to get where she is today. “I got to the point in my life where I was very miserable. My marriage was awful, I was bored at work, I felt bored, upset and fed up," she said.
“I didn’t want to get up. I only wanted to do things with my children. I needed to do something that was going to improve my life for myself and my children, to get a new path and a new skill set. I looked at courses at Bristol University and archaeology really piqued my interest."
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She started by completing an access course at the City of Bristol College, where she revisited skills such as writing an essay, so she could 'hit the ground running'. She said: “I love learning and find a lot of things interesting."
The first roadblock came in the form of lockdown when she was only halfway through her first year and home-schooling her children Marcello and Emilio was added to her ‘to do’ list. She said the mental health team at the university helped her get through the tough moments.
“I was juggling so many things, even just getting the housework done. The university mental health team would step in and to provide support. We worked out chunks of time and how it can be filled so it all becomes more manageable,” she said.
Charlotte added that going to university as a mature student had advantages. “There were other mature students in my classes. It was a nice mix of people and there were only a few times I felt my age. The good thing about being a mature student is that you have more confidence to ask questions and that encourages the younger students.”
During her degree, she volunteered for different charity projects. These included with the Bristol Museum, a charity in Hampshire Wessex Archaeology, which uses archaeology to support injured veterans, as well as taking part in outreach lessons for children and helping to catalogue the university’s flora and fauna collection.
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Having grown up with a grandmother who used to explain uses of plants when they went on walks, Charlotte said she was naturally drawn towards plants. She said: “Finding a pot or a bone on a dig is amazing, but finding just a seed can say so much about our past.
She said she wants to teach her two sons to know it’s never too late to pursue a dream, saying about her interest in history: “History is such a wealth of knowledge. But it’s good to look at history and be critical as it’s not always the right story being told."
For her dissertation, she analysed charred botanical remains, including wheat and oats from between 1138AD and 1153AD which she said revealed fascinating data. "It’s a link across time, it’s called archaeobotany and it’s what I now want to pursue," she said.
“I get giddy talking about it. I’ve worked really hard and I’ve learned to look at what you’ve achieved, don’t worry about what is coming.”
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