Nathan Lawson is a second-year geography student at Jesus, and President of the Oxford Climate Society (OCS). In this week’s College Coffee Break, he tells us about his pathway to Oxford, his passion for his subject and the OCS….oh and the time he met Greta Thunberg.

“I’m currently halfway through my degree course and, due to the current pandemic, am studying from home in Kent. I like spending time on my own but do miss the spontaneity of bumping into people I know around Oxford, catching up and going for a coffee. Geography and my passion for learning are definitely what’s giving me a reason to get up in the morning right now.

I went to a state comprehensive school in East Sussex, but had to move to Kent halfway through my A-levels due to family reasons, which meant leaving my school and my friends. It was a really difficult time and as a result, I didn’t quite get the grades I needed to get in to Oxford. However, in Year 13, I remember watching a YouTube video called ‘How I got into Oxford twice’ by a Study YouTuber. Study YouTubers are a big thing now, and this student talked about how she’d got admitted as an undergraduate by doing an Oxford University Foundation Year first. The Foundation Year is a year-long course that enables students from underrepresented backgrounds to reach their potential. Students on the Foundation Year live and study at Lady Margaret Hall (LMH) and get tuition in their chosen subject. It doesn’t guarantee you a place at Oxford, but, the Foundation Year gave me an opportunity to prove myself. The course was free and fully-funded, which really helped. I applied to do biology, and got accepted.

‘I could have decided to go to a different university but didn’t want to give up on my Oxford dream’.

Towards the end of the Foundation course, I began to think that maybe biology wasn’t for me. I found my interests shifting towards a broader perspective around climate change and environmental geography and enjoyed reading around the subject. LMH didn’t offer geography so I talked to Alan Rusbridger, the College Principal, who helped to put me in contact with some Oxford geography tutors. It was tricky because I’d studied a science subject rather than geography during my Foundation Year, so only two were able to offer me an interview – Professor Patricia Daley and Professor Rich Grenyer from Jesus College. They were quite open in saying that all the places on the Geography course were filled for the year, so I’d have to wait to see whether a place became available. I could have decided to go to a different university but didn’t want to give up on my Oxford dream. It wasn’t until two weeks before 0th week that I found out I’d got in. Now all my extra-curricular reading and interests feed into my degree and my essays; it’s fun and I really love it.

I’m interested in social change and social justice, and the power for change when intelligence is combined with a social purpose. I’m inspired by people like Vandana Shiva, an Indian activist who studied physics and philosophy before becoming a grassroots campaigner in the fields of things like intellectual property rights, biodiversity and bioethics. I hope one day that I can be like that. I’m also inspired by people like Greta Thunberg and Malala Yousafzai, both of whom I was lucky enough to meet when I was at LMH, and Alan Rusbridger of course.

I met Greta when she came to visit Malala in LMH back in Hilary 2020. I was studying in the college library when I got an email asking me whether I’d like to meet Greta the next day. I couldn’t quite believe it, and had to refresh the page a few times to check it was real! It was understandably all very top-secret beforehand. I found it hard not to tell my friends but it was an amazing opportunity nonetheless. I met Greta along with other students from LMH and we had time to discuss her experiences and get her thoughts on the climate movement. She was really sweet and down to earth. I learnt that age shouldn’t be a barrier to having social impact, as Greta is a great example of.

‘The OCS is all about inspiring and educating the next generation of climate leaders, and providing platforms for academic, artistic, and social engagement with climate change.’

The Oxford Climate Society (OCS) was founded in 2014 and I came across it in the first week of my Foundation Year. The OCS is all about inspiring and educating the next generation of climate leaders, and providing platforms for academic, artistic, and social engagement with climate change. It’s one of Oxford largest societies and has a really diverse membership. The OCS has events every Monday and I remember seeing an event on the first day of Michealmas term 2018, with Simon L. Lewis, co-author of The Human Planet – How we created the Anthropocene, which I’d previously read and referenced in my personal statement. I remember being astonished at how normalized it was in Oxford to meet with and talk to such senior academics and professionals. I thought ‘Oh wow, is this what university is all about?’, and wondered if it was something I could get involved in.

‘The Foundation Year had enabled me to build up my confidence to the level that I thought ‘Why don’t I go for something big?’

In my first year at Jesus the OCS hustings came up. I had already done some interviews with climate researchers for a podcast I created called The Climate Breakdown, and built up a rapport with the OCS, which featured the podcast in its newsletters. The Foundation Year had enabled me to build up my confidence to the level that I thought ‘Why don’t I go for something big?’ I put myself forward for the role of President. I had to give a 3-minute pitch in front of everybody about what I wanted to do for the Society and (although it was a bit unstructured and I did mention meeting Greta Thunberg) I focused on talking about social justice and showing people of colour that climate change is not just something for white people; that it’s something they should be worried about too. If you look at the global perspective, it is predominantly people of colour who are disproportionately affected by climate change, yet I felt that there was still a big disconnect with such groups in the UK. I wanted to reconnect people of colour in the UK to the broader global struggle. Whilst my pitch was incredibly disorganised and my nerves were obvious, it was this ambition which I think resonated with everyone, and the reason I was chosen as President.

There are many great societies at the University that invite fantastic speakers, but I think that apart from the Oxford Union maybe, the OCS has some of the best; heads of major research organisations, politicians and great thinkers. I’ve had the opportunity to meet and interview many incredible people for the OCS; for example, Mary Robinson, former President of Ireland and former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Nnimmo Bassey, former chair of Friends of the Earth International and Vandana Shiva, my personal idol. Coming to the end of my term as President now, this has most certainly been one of the highlights of my Oxford career so far, and I will remember these experiences for a very long time.

‘I just want to increase my knowledge and experience as much as possible, so hopefully in a few decades time I can start to make a real difference’

The pandemic has transformed our events programme one hundred percent. Being online means we’ve grown our interaction with people in Oxford and beyond.  Rather than say 100 people enjoying a talk in a lecture theatre in Oxford , we’re now getting thousands of  people watching our events online via YouTube, and from all around the world – particularly in India because a lot of our speakers share their events widely and there’s a lot of interest there – which is really rewarding. We also run an eight-week seminar course called The Oxford School of Climate Change. That used to be 40-50 people in a room but since we had to move virtual learning, we now have 1400 people from all over the world taking part. So that’s been a real positive. There’s a big pull to keep events online post-pandemic, but social interaction is so important too – especially for a grassroots social movement – and something we’re missing at the moment, so we’ll see.

There is one battle I do still face. They say ‘the more you know, the more you realise you don’t know’, and the more I read into environmental research, the more I think I don’t know enough yet to become the kind of leader or influencer I want to be. So right now I just want to increase my knowledge and experience as much as possible, so hopefully in a few decades time I can start to make a real difference.‘

 

To learn more about the Oxford Climate Society and upcoming events, click here.

To watch previous events, head to the OCS YouTube channel here.