Media student, Adam, from Bicester is an incredible example of how students can progress and flourish at OCVC. In the space of four years, he has progressed from the First Diploma, which he enrolled on in 2003, and is now on the first year of the BA Honours at the Banbury Campus.  However, his pathway in education was nearly very different.

On leaving school in 2003, Adam, who is now 20, was intending to embark into the world of drama and the performing arts.  But it wasn’t until his first course at the College, that allowed him to express his creativity through a module in acting but primarily exposed him to Media production and theory, that Adam realised his greatest passion lay elsewhere.

“I remember going into Media theory lessons and thinking ‘wow – I’d never thought about TV like that before’. It taught me about aspects of television and film production that I’d never really thought about before, let alone taken any interest in”, Adam commented.

Adam’s keen interest in being in front of the camera started when he and his friends would film skateboarding stunts and tricks. What he wasn’t expecting was that his interest in filming would increasingly see him behind the camera instead of being the subject of short films.

Having had little prior interest in media before undertaking the First Diploma qualification, Adam was concerned that he wouldn’t know all of the correct terms and names used in media studies and production.
However, his fears were soon reassured, “The tutors have all been great from day one”.

Outside of College, Adam is a member of two bands and after feeling he had benefited from his First Diploma in Media, he recommended the course to his guitarist who is now completing the qualification with the view to progressing onto the Popular Music course on the Oxford City Centre campus.

He feels that coming to College is also about more than just learning, “I’ve changed so much since my first day here. I’m learning new things every day; not just about media, but about myself and I don’t think I would have benefited from that if I hadn’t come here”.

Looking to the future, Adam’s ideal job is a combination of directing, editing and writing for either television or film. Having set up a small production company with fellow students and currently working on a sitcom script which they hope to film later this year, as well as undertaking professional practice for the BBC, Adam’s dream is looking more like a reality.