Sophie Stephens

Since graduating, I started working at Acorn where I’m working on a range of residential and commercial projects at various stages of development. This has included tasks such as site visits on potential development sites or our construction sites, attending public consultations, and participating in networking events. Day to day, my role usually involves conversing with landowners and estate agents, using CAD to stetch up potential development schemes, and then the use of excel spreadsheets to assess the viability of a project.

So far, the most exciting thing I’ve done is aided in the submission of a planning application for a site the company owns near Newquay. I attended the public consultation, input my thoughts during the design process, and have aided in creating documents for our architects and in-house planner. Being only 10 months into my new career, I have plenty of exciting milestones to look forward to!

All the academic staff were incredibly helpful during my studies and all the lectures were engaging. The staff were especially supportive during my second year when the lectures were online, and they aided us in getting the most out of online studies through pre-recorded videos, breakout rooms, and workshops.

Our field trip to Bath in my 1^st year was a very memorable trip, especially the walk-through Cheddar Gorge and all the caves. I’m not a physical geographer but this part of my studies was incredibly inspirational.

During my time at Plymouth, my career aspirations changed from my initially wanting to get into teaching, towards an interest in property and land. This was triggered by the range of topics, modules, and fieldtrips I studied, which made me realise how diverse geography was, and that I wanted to explore career opportunities.

My favourite memory from Plymouth was a group project I did in second year, which was fieldwork in geography (GGX2204). Unfortunately, we didn’t get to go on the field trip [because of the covid pandemic] so the module was online, but some of my favourite memories were the zoom calls and meetings with my group to make the presentation.