20 November 2023
Now in her second year studying fine arts at Cornell University, USA, alumna Ona’s online “In Conversation With” session with Woldingham’s Head of Art, Miss Campbell, was both informative and inspirational for the art scholars who gathered to hear from her at lunchtime on Thursday 9 November.
As well as describing the course, Ona showed examples of her work in the media of painting, photography and print, explaining that Cornell “really promotes a broad range of learning of different techniques.” Ona also shared work from the Woldingham portfolio that helped secure her place at Cornell. Although not back at Woldingham in person, Ona was clearly delighted to see the school’s art studio once again. She shared how grateful she was for how Woldingham had nurtured her creativity and described what a good foundation her art studies at school had proved to be, saying: “It’s been really nice to take what Woldingham gave me and use it in different forms”.
At another “In Conversation With” session the following Thursday lunchtime, it was the turn of Daisy, Upper Sixth, to put questions on behalf of her fellow students to Oliver, who is studying history at the University of Oxford.
Oliver advised students thinking of applying to study history at Oxford to find a topic they really love, read lots of books about it and make notes, and to talk to friends about it. Chatting about history whenever possible, Oliver said, is great preparation for interview. He also whetted academic appetites by talking about his experiences of having one to ones with world experts, such as historian David Parrott, and by explaining the ‘freedom’ he enjoys writing essays at university compared to those at A Level. Oliver was highly adept at explaining complicated concepts extremely well and the students took the opportunity to ask him about topics including the Thirty Years’ War and whether historical events really parallel the present.