Oxford’s women go global
The 5th instalment of ‘100 years of Oxford’s amazing women’.
We hear from two women who have come here from distant parts and found a warm welcome from the community. Aneta has worked hard to become an integral part of Oxford’s welcome to the world, while Akshayaa won an amazing scholarship to spend a year among the dreaming spires. Both have made Oxford their home.
The custodian
Aneta Czyszczon, Senior Custodian Christ Church
Is home
Aneta wears her bowler hat with pride. She loves her job as a senior custodian at Christ Church, one of Oxford’s most historic and most visited colleges. It is a highly demanding role, dealing not only with the junior members (all lovely, says Aneta) but also with tens of thousands of visitors on the Harry Potter/Lewis Carol trail who come to the college every year.
Sometimes, the queue for admission into Christ Church stretches far into Christ Church Meadow and the custodians, in their iconic bowlers, are not just representatives for the college but ambassadors for the University.
Aneta has only recently been promoted to the position of Senior Custodian and is clearly unconcerned that this was once — as the bowler suggests — a man’s job. Everyone at Christ Church, she says, has been ‘so supportive’. ‘They have given me opportunities.’
Aneta joined the college’s housekeeping team six years ago, following several years working in the hotel industry. ‘That was a very difficult time,’ she says.
She moved from housekeeping to being a custodian and she is now a Senior Custodian, with a key role in customer service — extending a helping hand and a warm welcome to people from around the world. Yet, it is not that long ago, Aneta says, that her English was restricted to ‘yes, no, please and thank you’.
‘I planned to stay for two years and then go back to Poland,’ she says. ‘But I have fallen in love with Oxford. The people are so friendly and I really enjoy the environment. Now,’ says Aneta. ‘Oxford is home and I love working in visitor services. I love to help people. Every day [at Christ Church] is a challenge, every day is different.’
The social policy postgrad
Akshayaa Chittibabu, Marshall Postgraduate Scholar studying for a Masters’ in Comparative Social Policy
Home away from home
Akshayaa is a determined young woman. One of just 48 US students this year to be awarded a Marshall Scholarship — funding two years of graduate study in the UK — Akshayaa is making the most of it before she goes back to the States to start medical training.
This academic year, she is pursuing a Masters’ in Oxford while throwing herself into the life of her college, Trinity. She has joined a language exchange group and is learning to row, which means very early starts, but this doesn’t bother the young New Englander.
‘It’s beautiful when you catch the sun rise,’ she maintains, with American earnestness. And she really means it. Akshayaa likes ‘most everything’ she has seen so far: ‘Living here has been wonderful, I’m enjoying my time here,’ she says.
Akshayaa says Oxford people are really friendly: ‘I’ve found a wonderful community at the university. It’s a home away from home and it happened really quickly.’
But the academic work is different: ‘There’s a lot more independent learning, a lot of time in the abstract space.’
Being 3,000 miles from home is not without problems. Akshayaa admits: ‘It’s been a bit of a culture shock. It’s similar but different. There’s no real iced coffee in this country!’
It’s not all bad though.
‘I drink a lot of tea now and I like the pub culture. But British people can drink me under the table,’ she laughs.
What next?
Follow us here on Medium where we’ll be publishing more articles soon.
Want to read more? Try our articles on: Women at Oxford, LGBTSTEMDay 2019 and International Day of Women and Girls in Science 2019.
Are you a member of the University who wants to write for us on Medium? Get in touch with us here with your ideas: digicomms@admin.ox.ac.uk.
