Course: Meng Bioengineering
Nationality: Italian
My background
Although I was born and raised in Italy and
I have always attended non-international schools near Milan, I can fairly say
that I’ve been a cosmopolitan person all of my life. I have been travelling for
many years with my parents, who had friends all around Europe and with my
friends visiting people I met during my high school semester in Wales at
Morriston Comprehensive School. All of this has taught me that being
cosmopolitan is a mind-set, no matter if you have lived all of your life in the
same country. I found that at the University of Sheffield this is considered as
a value and how could this not be? There are more than 160 countries
represented in this University!
Why I chose the University of Sheffield.
Before choosing the University I wanted to
attend, I did a lot of browsing through websites and I found that UoS website
was a really useful resource. I would advise you to have a look at it because
it answers a lot of questions you may ask yourself. I read about all of the
modules I would have to take if I enrolled on the Bioengineering course and I
found it was ideal for someone like me who was always interested in both maths
but also in more scientific subjects. I was really confused when I had to
choose between Engineering and Medicine but here was the answer for me:
Bioengineering. There are other universities offering a similar course but I
found that their perspective was more focussed on engineering.
What convinced me to choose the UoS was not
solely based on what I had read on the website or on its high ranking. At high
school I attended an Open Day at the Polytechnic of Milan which has the best
engineering facilities in Italy. I asked a lecturer and the Head of Department
of Biomedical Engineering, which would be the best University to study
Bioengineering in the UK and they both agreed that the University of Sheffield
would have been my best choice.
What I enjoy about my subject at the
University of Sheffield
As I said, I don’t think you can find
another course like this one because it is split among so many other
departments. This way, you get the best of everything that the University of
Sheffield can offer you. It is hard to get bored of Bioengineering at the UoS
because every module is quite different from the others but at the same time
they were chosen in a way that makes them intertwine. I am becoming more aware
of this as my first semester is coming to an end and I can see the links
between the different subjects I have been taught in the previous months.
Why Sheffield – The Steel City?
I have to say that knowing I would be
living in Sheffield helped me decide to attend UoS because Sheffield is a
really nice city to live in. This is because you can get the best of both city
and country since Sheffield is the third largest metropolitan district in
England. It can offer you anything you may be looking for – a lot of international
food for example, which I personally adore! It has a very active music scene
with lots of gigs on, which makes Sheffield the perfect city to live in if you
love music. At the same time, Sheffield lies partially within the Peak District
and it is one of the greenest cities in Europe. Whenever you want to get out of
the city you can do it very easily, enjoying the wonderful landscapes that the
countryside of South Yorkshire has to offer. There is also the possibility of
doing many different outdoor sports that
bring you in close contact with nature,
so don’t forget to take your training shoes with you!
The perks of being part of the
University of Sheffield
Apart from the academic point of view, UoS
has so many opportunities to offer a student. The Students Union has been
ranked first in the UK and it does deserve that place because it’s always
organising so may events. What strikes me about the UoS is the variety that you
can find here. The University organises nights our and clubbing for you and at
the same time great sport and volunteering activities, so that if you can
manage your own time you could be involved in something 24/7. The word boredom
doesn’t exist in Sheffield’s vocabulary.
What I want to do after my degree
There are many things I would like to do
after my degree but the main three are: working in the developing world maybe
with some kind of organisation like ‘Engineers Without Borders’ or ‘Engineering
World Health’; working in a hospital such as the big Royal Hallamshire Hospital
here in Sheffield; going back to my home country and starting a bioengineering
company in order to develop a field that is not yet represented in Italy. I am
aware that these things are very different from one another but I am sure that
studying at UoS will give me the inspiration to make the right choice, freely
and lead me to the path I wish to follow.
My advice
I’d like to quote from Mark Twain with one
of my favourite quotes first: “Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed
by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the
bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbour. Catch the trade winds in your sails.
Explore. Dream. Discover.”
I think the final three words clearly
represent what you can find in Sheffield and as an international student one
should never be afraid to leave home in fear of finding a storm because from
what I am experiencing, Sheffield is a great harbour to dock.
No comments:
Post a Comment