Emma Kelleher BA History

Hi, I'm Emma Kelleher and I studied BA History within Humanities at the University of Southampton.

Southampton has offered me diversity in my studies and in my involvement in societies.

Before beginning my studies at Southampton I spent a gap year in Malawi, East Africa. I travelled and organised my gap year with a company, Africa Asia Venture (AV) and was fortunate enough to have raised £5,000. I was assigned to teach in Nkhoma Primary School, an hour outside Lilongwe, the capital.

The poverty of the school and its facilities were shocking for us fortunate Westerners. I entered what was to be my classroom; to me it seemed an empty barn filled with chickens, shrubs and one small blackboard. I naively asked where the desks were and was told simply that there were none. The prospect of teaching 130 pupils was inevitably daunting, especially with such limited resources. At first having so many children stare at you, not only because you are the first white person they have ever seen but because of their eagerness to learn, is daunting.

After three months teaching in Malawi we were fortunate to explore the wonders of East Africa, travelling by boat, train, bus, matola, matatu and motorbike taxi from Zambia to Tanzania, Zanzibar, Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda.

Beginning university was a world away from the previous year I had spent travelling. I am studying single honours history and Southampton has offered me diversity in my studies and in my involvement in societies. I am enjoying playing for the University’s first X1 Women’s Hockey Team and am excited for what the next two years may hold.