Twenty-four year-old Parhin Begum shares her journey at UCLan as she pursues a career in the media.

I’m currently a project officer for an interfaith organisation in Blackburn and I study a master’s degree in Journalism at the University of Central Lancashire (UCLan).

I graduated with a BA (Hons) in Religion, Culture and Society from UCLan back in 2017.

The three years during my bachelor’s degree was a thought-provoking and an eye-opening experience that helped me learn a lot about my own faith and opened me to new religious thoughts that I was not familiar with previously.

The learning experience was interesting because we did not only learn in stimulating sessions in the classrooms through various discussions and debates, but we also learnt by attending a number of local and international trips to strengthen our understanding further.

The different themes and topics broadened my horizons and allowed me to venture challenging and sensitive issues relating to religions and cultures on a global scale. All the staff on the course were very supportive and encouraged me to be inquisitive, challenge my thoughts and think outside of the box.

Following my studies at UCLan, I was inspired to attend a trip to Ghana and live there for three months to support a development project within a remote village.

The aim of the project was to enhance economic opportunities for disadvantaged farmers in the rural area.

During my stay in Ghana, I maintained a blog and produced short films to document my experience, which sparked my initial interest in journalism. Immediately on my return, I managed to gain employment with a charity organisation in Blackburn as an Interfaith Project Officer. My role as a project officer is to develop interfaith initiatives in Blackburn with Darwen to help build bridges between different faith communities and non-faith communities in the area.

My bachelor’s degree in Religion, Culture and Society helped me a great deal because I drew a lot of my knowledge from my experience on the course. I have now returned to UCLan again to study my master’s degree in Journalism. UCLan was the only institution that I considered to do my master’s degree in because I was confident that they are well connected with the journalism and the media industry.

I did not regret this decision when the ‘CJam: Journalism’ event came around. CJam: Journalism is an event where a number of industry professionals are invited to UCLan and Journalism students have the opportunity to pitch a story idea and win a placement with the organisation.

I geared myself up to pitch a story idea to a few organisations that I was interested in working with, namely BBC and ITV. I was very pleased that I succeeded to win a placement with BBC Breakfast. When it came around to the time of the placement, I was filled with awe as I entered the BBC building in MediaCityUK, Salford.

I worked alongside the producers and editors and gained a lot of insight into what happens behind the scenes in the newsroom.

I hope to return there again in the summer and then hopefully embark on my career as a journalist.

Find out more by e-mailing: cenquiries@uclan.ac.uk Telephone: 01772 892400 or see uclanfcci.co.uk/humanities.html