Anastasia Chau

Hi everyone, my name is Anastasia and I did the MSc Risk, Disaster and Resilience at the IRDR between 2021 and 2022. So a bit about my background; I originally studied economics at undergraduate level but after my bachelor's in economics I wanted to redirect myself towards disaster risk reduction or risk management so when I was looking through like the different Master’s that exist I came across the one at UCL. Something I did and I highly recommend doing is going to the induction lectures because it really gave me a sense of what I could expect from this MSc and this is how I started the Master’s in September 2021. So before coming I was a bit apprehensive about having maybe a bit of a different background than everyone but when I arrived I realised that everyone was coming from very different disciplines and from very different walks of life, which was actually really beneficial to get different perspectives. So that's the first element I really enjoyed during the Master’s.  The student community, which was also expanded at the time because the student society was also created during the year I was there. Another thing I really enjoyed about this Master’s was the breadth of modules that were offered and the fact that I learned as much in the classroom during lectures as outside the classroom during the different events that were organised by the department throughout the year. So this Master’s also really cemented my desire to do research especially during my dissertation which I really, really enjoyed doing. So after that this Master’s really helped me get a research assistant position at the University of Cambridge and I then rejoined the IRDR as a PhD student last year. So I would really recommend this Master’s for anyone who is interested in disaster risk reduction or would like to pursue your career in maybe emergency management, disaster risk reduction consultancy, insurance or would like to research like me. Feel free to message me if you have any questions about my Master's experience or what you can expect.

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