For South Asian Heritage Month, our Graduate Student Advisor Salma reflects on her experience of moving from Bangladesh to the UK, studying at Royal Holloway, and her favourite movie recommendations!
For South Asian Heritage Month, our Graduate Student Advisor Salma reflects on her experience of moving from Bangladesh to the UK, studying at Royal Holloway, and her favourite movie recommendations!
Umma Salma
Graduate Advisor
My name is Salma and I am one of the advisors at Royal Holloway Students' Union. I was born and raised in Bangladesh and when I was nine, my family suddenly started preparing to come to the UK. I can vividly remember that all I was looking forward to was traveling on a plane for the first time, not knowing how my entire life would change. I came to the UK in 2010, almost 13 years ago! It feels like just yesterday when I only knew how to say a few lines in English. It was a massive culture shock coming from a country where everyone was Bangladeshi to a diverse country. Being multilingual I can speak English, Bengali, Hindi, and Korean and read and write Arabic.
Throughout secondary school, my favourite subject was Geography and Economics as I love to learn about how the world works. Therefore, I decided to study Financial Business with Economics at Royal Holloway and really enjoyed modules in international trade. I loved the diversity in food, music, and people at Royal Holloway. I always looked forward to lunchtime after the busy times of exams and classes. I would love to go to The Hub and have a variety of options from Japanese or Korean to Sri Lankan to Indian food.
When I graduated last year I was in the race to find a job that was related to finance such as investment banking and accounting. However, I wasn’t sure if I wanted a job that is related to my course. I knew from a young age that I always loved education and being surrounded by a school environment with classes. With teachers and students, I always felt elated. After finishing my degree I felt I still wanted to be at the University for a longer period. Therefore I decided to work at the Students' Union where I can still be part of the University and also help students with their experience.
In my spare time, I love watching Bollywood movies, especially movies that are related to education, such as Taara Zamen Par, Super 30, 3 Idiots, and Hichki. I relate to these movies so much because it represents the struggle of being a student and how to overcome it. Coming from a different country was a real challenge especially in education where you constantly feel the additional pressure of English not being your first language.
My advice to non-UK students is to constantly meet people from different cultures and backgrounds by joining societies or sports clubs as it will boost your confidence and communication skills. You'll learn so many new things and overcome loads of the obstacles that university brings.