On Tuesday 5 March, we were delighted to welcome back Old Viking, Rada Pándeva (21B) to deliver a fascinating Masterclass to our scholars and other members of the College community. In the summer of 2023, Rada was one of the winners of the inaugural Old Viking of the Year awards in the Ones to Watch – OVs Under 30 category and in this Masterclass, spoke about her current work and studies.
Rada is currently studying Marine Science at the University of Exeter and is also the founder of The Thalassophile Project – a project that aims to make marine science and ocean literacy accessible to everyone, particularly to D/deaf and visually impaired people. The project has been met with great success and has since received Erasmus support with its official introduction at the first International Conference on Ocean Training and Education in Ghent, Belgium, receiving admiration. In 2022, Rada was elected as a World Ocean Day Youth Advisory Council member, among hundreds of young people from over 60 countries, and became the first representative from Bulgaria.
In her Masterclass, Rada spoke of her journey to date, starting from when she was a Shiplake scholar herself! She also spoke of her passion for the ocean, and it was clear for everyone to see just how much this vast and mysterious world captivates her. Rada always loved the sea and would read and write about it whenever she had the chance and, here at Shiplake, Rada’s passion for the sea has since been immortalised following a feature she wrote in an edition of The Viking Voice!
Rada also spoke about our role and responsibility in safeguarding the planet and the ocean, as well as what we can do as individuals to prevent climate change. She used the ClimateVenn model which is used to show how an individual can help with climate solutions. It looks at what you are good at, what is the work that needs doing, and what brings you joy and satisfaction. By getting to the heart of the ClimateVenn model, an individual will be able to discover their climate action. For Rada, this is very much centred around the ocean but for others, it could be to do with animal conservation, tree/rainforest preservation or something completely different. As Rada said in her masterclass, the key aspect is what brings you joy as it is only then that you will be able to make a meaningful and positive impact.
In the last part of her talk, Rada spoke more about her course and some of the work that she is doing through her initiatives. This includes looking at ocean bioacoustics which is looking at how wildlife in the ocean communicates. By doing this, one in theory could learn to ‘speak’ the language and subsequently communicate with the ocean. This would help with knowing what to and how to help preserve the ocean and all that it entails.
Rada concluded her talk by encouraging everyone to explore and learn about the ocean. You don’t have to go diving and can instead learn from afar about the ocean. As Rada said, the ocean is a completely different world and exploring it is the best part!
Thank you Rada for coming back to Shiplake to talk passionately about her work and studies. We can’t wait to see what the future brings for one of our brightest Old Vikings.
