Alicia Tarver is a current student on City’s MSc Human Computer Interaction Design programme.
What is your name and what course do you study, what year are you in, what scholarship did you receive?
My name is Alicia Tarver, I’m a first-year postgraduate student studying Human-Computer Interaction and Design.
I’m a recipient of the Global STEM Leadership Scholarship.
What were you doing before you came to study at City?
Before coming to City, I was working in healthcare at a cancer research hospital in Boston, Massachusetts.
My days involved advocating for patients to receive the healthcare they needed without causing undue financial burden.
What has been your favourite module on the course, and what have you enjoyed most about your time at City?
In my first term, I took a module called Information Architecture and it’s been my favourite thus far.
The module lecturer was extremely passionate about the subject and was clearly invested in teaching the content in an engaging way.
What kind of things are you involved in outside of your course?
When I’m not studying, I spend my time visiting museums, working on design-related side projects, and exploring different neighbourhoods in London.
What do you plan to do after you graduate?
When I graduate, I plan to work in user research or content design, hopefully at a consultancy in London.
What would be your top tip for our applicants?
My top tip for applicants is to be open to new experiences and pursue them in a way that they find interesting.
Being able to embrace differences in culture, attitudes, and experience is what’s helped me the most in forming genuine connections with my peers and tutors.
What is your proudest academic achievement?
My proudest academic achievement in my current course has been finishing my coursework for my Information Architecture module.
I’m proud of it, not because I think it’s the best thing I’ve ever done, but because the process that I used to complete it taught me so much about the field of Human-Computer Interaction.
The coursework also opened my eyes to a potential career path I wouldn’t have explored otherwise.
How do you see your subject of study changing in the future?
I hope to see my subject of study change to become more focused on providing equitable access to information to people regardless of disabilities, socioeconomic status, or race.
I think that this is likely to happen in the near future.