Home » Posts tagged 'Warnborough College'
Tag Archives: Warnborough College
Embracing Your Inner Writer – Courses for Aspiring Professionals
Many people turn to the arts later in their lives. Building on the wealth of experience that comes with age, artists and writers find themselves with a rich vein of life experience on which to build their creations.
Writing is a skill and it requires experience and practice to develop to its full potential. For those who choose later in life to change to a writing career, it pays to invest in personal and professional training to build essential skill sets to be the best that one can be. Moreover, it is sometimes useful to show potential employers and publishers that they have the necessary professional credentials.
Nevertheless, any change in career is difficult. For writers wanting to go professional, this is no different. Writing, compared to many other careers, is about what you have done and can do – it is difficult to be taken seriously without a portfolio of work. Furthermore taking the time to develop the skills needed to succeed can be difficult as traditional campus-based education is typically inflexible and uncompromising to the needs of adult learners with busy lives. Besides, us artistic people know you can’t always pull ideas out of the sky.
Masters and PhD Creative Writing from Warnborough College
Warnborough’s creative writing programs have been developed from the point of view of someone wishing to develop a professional career as a writer.
Created by and developed with professional writers, Warnborough College’s creative writing programme is a combination of personal development as a writer as well as academic study to better understand the nature, history and development of writing. It is a complete programme intended to produce professional writers who can appraise the works of other professionally as well as create quality texts of their own.
There are eight core modules which should give any serious writer the main tools and knowledge of writing. After that, you can go to town with elective modules or a thesis or a portfolio. Creative writing is about being creative, naturally.
The rationale behind the course, is that by the completion of it, you will have amassed a full portfolio of work – the better to enable you to give your writing career the best launch possible.
Flexibility and Choice
We have always been about putting our students first and developing programmes that suit their needs.
Whether you want to use your creative writing course to become a writer of detective fiction, ghost write the lives of the rich and famous, or translate the lessons of your life into song and verse, the Masters and PhD creative writing programs can be customised to suit your interest. The modular nature means you can pick and choose modules that interest you more than others. The final assessment is based on work that you have produced, and the feedback only serves to make your work stronger. By the time you have finished, you will have lots of publishable work.
Also, you can start the programme at any time – enrolment is on the first of every month.
So, your professional writing career could begin with writing something simple: an application.
The only limiting factor is your own imagination.
Student Thoughts: Michelle J Grey
Michelle Grey
I’m Michelle J Grey – I prefer to be called Michelle or MJ. I’m a married mother of three adult children and have been studying through Warnborough’s distance learning programme since late 2010.
Currently I reside in the Norfolk Broads region of England. I work for Gardline Environmental, as their laboratory supervisor. Studying at Warnborough has presented a way for me to work full time as well as attain a BSc in environmental science. There aren’t many opportunities out there for mature students wishing to finish what they started, so when I came across the programme that Warnborough offered, I got really excited. I am so impressed with the way the course is organised. My colleagues, who have attained their degrees the conventional way, have commented time and time again on how much better this programme is than was theirs – they say it gives a more hands-on approach (despite it being by distance learning).
Growing up in California, USA, I attended the public schools in the San Joaquin Valley. I was keen to learn and always wished to earn top marks. I would focus on my homework once arriving home and then play outside once finished (a rule that my parents had for which I am very thankful to this day). School and the outdoors quickly became my favourite things in life. I even volunteered for summer school and extra credit work as often as I could!
Distance Learning
Distance learning is different from a typical learning programme in that it can be all that you want it to be. What I mean by that is, you can put a lot into it by searching for supplements to the topics. You can read the supplied materials and follow the reading sources given by your tutors and you can go beyond that and research as much as you want to really grasp each concept. It all depends on how much free time you have and how much you want to get out of this.
I chose to pursue the BSc in Environmental Science because I have always loved the outdoors and always believed we could find our cures to all of human ailments in nature. I started looking to complete my biochemistry degree when moving over here to England back in 2003. I also needed to work full-time to help take care of our three children. I have worked in both agriculture and biotech and found that I preferred the natural world to the man-made world. When I discovered the course I am now currently on, I got really excited as it seemed to cover all of the topics that really interest me and that would provide me with the knowledge required for my career goals.
Once completing this degree, I hope to go onto to study for a Master of Science in a similar discipline to what I am taking now and then go into freelance work alongside my partner and best friend who inspires me to keep going, even when I get really tired and I’m not earning those top marks that I still feel so determined to earn.
Inspiration
One of my favourite quotes is, “Never, never, never give up” by Winston Churchill because it motivates me when the going gets tough.
I don’t have a favourite film, but one that I like to watch whenever I need a lift is actually an animated film titled ‘Howl’s Moving Castle’. I can relate to it on so many levels and it helps to remind me of why I am working so hard and not to give up.
The advice I would give to aspiring students of Environmental Science is to get out in nature on a regular basis and read all that you can so that you can develop a strong sense of what the issues are and be able to aid in saving those beautiful areas that have inspired the great ones of our past and present times, including yourself!
Looking Back
If I could go back and give advice to my younger self it would be to keep on the path I was on and never look back. I am truly thankful for where that path has led me all throughout my life and look forward to where it is leading. My favourite poem is The Road Not Taken, by Robert Frost and it sums it up in the last few lines which reads, “Two roads diverged in a wood, and I, I took the one less travelled by, and that has made all the difference.”
This is how I live my life and by getting out and roaming this world, I find I can relax and learn at the same time. I love the assignments which require me to get out and investigate as it has shown me the beauties which lie all around, whether it be a common tree such as the Quercus robur (English Oak) or the more rare natural beauties such as the Ophrys bombyliflora (Bumblebee orchid), I have discovered their habitats and have been lucky enough to capture them on film, so to speak.
What next?
You can find me on Linked-in at the moment, if you are interested in the work that I am involved in currently. As things progress I will also update my profile to reflect where the path leads me career-wise.
If I had unlimited money…… I would buy a small-holding and set up a private practice while still finishing up my education in order to inspire others who choose to follow on a similar path. I would also support efforts that aid in saving habitats and give back to education as without it all is lost.
Warnborough in five words: A hope for the future.
Michelle J Grey
Alumni Interview: Dr Donald Beman, PhD in Creative Writing
Dr Donald Beman
Where do you live and what do you do?
I live in Lake Katrine, New York, I’m online faculty at Excelsior College; creator of online Learning Resources (eTexts and online Video WordShops; freelance writer (novels and screenplays – converting my previously published mass market paperback novels to eBooks and eScripts and releasing a new serialized eNovel)].
What did you really enjoy about your time at Warnborough?
The freedom to learn, to true acquire knowledge, and working with Maria.
What were you like at school when you were a kid?
Probably a ‘pain in the ass’, for asking so many questions; and, sadly, taking on too many projects [e.g. building rockets in the later 50s: duh!].
Is there any difference between what you researched at Warnborough and what you are doing now?
Yes: I am now free to be a true Interdisciplinarian and promote my theory of the Physics of Writing [which I had the opportunity to ‘test’ and ‘prove’ at an HBCU in the south (Historically Black Colleges and Universities)].
Why did you choose this career?
Please view the following video ‘response’: ‘A Hunch an Itch and a Scratch’
Where next for you, career-wise?
“Keep on truckin'” in the write direction.
Who or what inspires you in this career?
Waking up in the morning.
What are you working right now?
Promoting the Physics of Writing and in whatever media/medium that works e.g. ‘On the Road‘:
What is your favourite quote?
‘Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work’ (Thomas Alva Edison).
What is your favourite film and why?
“Great Expectations”: ‘great expectations’.
What advice would you give to aspiring students in the same field as you?
Do not limit yourselves to a/any ‘field’; but instead read and write across the disciplines, and in turn possess the knowledge to claim with confidence and pride: scribo ergo possum.
What advice would you give to your younger self?
‘Now there is one outstandingly important fact regarding Spaceship Earth, and that is that no instruction book came with it’. Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth (1963). R. Buckminster Fuller (1895-1983).
How do you relax?
By not ‘un-relaxing’.
How can readers discover more about you and your work?
https://physicsofwriting.com/The_Final_Frontierl.html
Email
Alumni Interview: Arend van Campen
Arend van Campen was born in the Netherlands, and has just released a book on corporate responsibility and ethics based on his Masteral work at Warnborough College. He graduated in 2013. We catch up with him for a few minutes:
Where do you live now and what do you do?
I live in Switzerland and work as a trainer and teacher in the Oil & Gas Industry. I focus on the achievement of operational excellence through Business Ethics, Social Responsibility, Health, Safety and Ethics (HSE), and Sustainability.
What is your fondest memory about the time you were a student at Warnborough?
My intermediate visit and meeting Julian Ng and the staff in Canterbury. I remember it was very cold that January, but that week helped me to push through and finally complete my thesis. And, of course, I will never forget my graduation day.
Is there any difference between what you researched at Warnborough and what you are doing now?
Yes and no. My aim is to use my research to integrate Ethics as a moral philosophy into a too deterministic world of science (oil, gas, business) that until now only focuses on empirical proof. My research findings are now informed by quantum physics which opens up an entirely new and exciting vision and momentum. Philosophy can no longer be ignored as a part of the total worldview. It is the world view we see through philosophy as it asks all the questions. Separatism due to Newtonian insight is coming to a halt. Just in time I believe, but groups like the Neoconservatives, Brussels bureaucrats, etc. won’t listen just yet.
So why did you choose such a fascinating field?
I have a passion for our fellow beings, human and non human, and social responsibility – understanding that social cohesion equals peace.
What’s next for you?
I’d like to become a professor of ethics and sustainability (I already am a philosopher). Henri David Thoreau wrote that nowadays there are many professors of philosophy, but no philosophers.
Are you working on anything at the moment?
Only on my speech as the Chairman for a conference on operational excellence for tank terminals in Dubai.
Do you have a favourite quote?
‘When the wrong man uses the right means, the right means work in the wrong way.’
What were you like at school when you were a kid?
I was not too interested in school. I was always playing football or chasing pretty girls.
And what advice would you give to your younger self?
Forgive yourself, even if you have made mistakes, because they were meant for learning.
Do you get any time to relax?
Yes, I go fishing. Fishing teaches the first important virtue: patience… Also, I enjoy playing the harmonica or guitar.
How can readers discover more about you and your work?
If you want to read my research thesis, please go to www.creazene.org – you can download the ebook/pdf version of ‘Safety of Ethics’ for free (you’re welcome to donate). For information about my training work, check out www.tankterminaltraining.com
Warnborough College Ireland 