 So hiya, how are you and thank you for going to be interviewed. Should we get started? Hi Lucy, great to see you, great to be here. Oh, so nice. So tell me a little bit about yourself starting with your name, obviously. So my name is Rachel Headings. I am a current PhD student in my second year between politics and environment and specifically here at SCI. Nice, very interesting. So what are you actually doing for a PhD? So my kind of area of interest is in food policy. My master's degree, which I got in London is in food policy specifically and in my undergrad and throughout my professional year kind of dabbled in food policy councils food security advocacy business development that are like startups around food, lots of farm work and things like that. So my PhD now is specifically focusing on food system transformation, and especially kind of policy levers and looking at transformation in terms of policy. Nice, that's really interesting. I think so. It's why I'm doing four years on it. I hope you'd find it interesting. Let's get into the proper questions. I do have one really tricky one. So brace yourself this completely through the last person I interviewed. What is your favorite color? Cool. So it's actually I don't know if you can see this t-shirt it's like a forest green color was my school color for undergrad and just really reminds me of the pine trees from home we had lots of them and then we also had lots and lots of snow. So you'd get the beautiful pristine snow and then the dark, like green of the pine trees and I just love that contrast. Wow, that is a really nice story behind it as well. So where are you from and where's home. Well, as my accent like betrays, I am American. I'm from the Midwest and Michigan specifically so people know Detroit, and it's close to Chicago. That's a different state technically. And I'm from really far north in Michigan in that upper peninsula actually which on the map looks like it's part of Wisconsin. I'm definitely further north than some parts of Canada. And I consider home to be Marquette, which is where my university was up there right on the lake, right on the Lakeshore of Lake Superior. Nice. Definitely quite far from York then. Yep, I moved to York after the first lockdown in 2020. So about July I'm just, I've been here just over a year now. And I moved up from London where I had spent a year and a half doing my masters. So I'm, you said before that you just kind of like fell into the stock environment Institute. It wasn't particularly preplanned because of your supervisor so tell me what happened there how did you end up here. So, basically, I finished my masters and didn't want to get deported and couldn't find work for a tier two visa in the public sector because they don't generally have the money or resources to go through all the verification and things like that. So I decided to stay on in like the UK and do a PhD. I looked at several schools in York wasn't really on my radar, and then Bob Doherty, who was from the management school and leads, he let I know food and is now leading fix our food came and did kind of a guest lecture at City University where I was doing my MSc. And I was just really impressed with what I heard and his approach and it seemed really similar to my interests and what I was learned in my kind of conceptions of food systems. So I reached out to him. And it said that he's not actually a professor so he couldn't be my supervisor and directed me to tell me, Herron, who is my supervisor in the politics department. And I had a couple meetings with him, worked on my proposal, and he recommended john and zore as my secondary supervisor, and john is an SCI. And he was very much just kind of falling into these things. And it's tricky because food systems there are lots of ways that I could have gone it's such an interdisciplinary kind of subject. There's loads going on in health loads going on in the management school loads of politics and obviously loads here in environment and SCI. So I'm just thankful that I'm able to do kind of this interdisciplinary program and that and specifically in SCI because everybody has just been incredible and they're doing so much fascinating work around food. So what would you say your experience has been like working with SCI. I think that it's probably been quite different from people in previous years because of the lockdowns and because most of it has been virtual. Obviously a big part for SCI is not just the research but kind of the practicalities of it and implementing it through policy especially but kind of having that use on the ground which is so important to me. And I think that those opportunities, there's been loads of opportunities for webinars and like seminars to do that, but less so I think for me to contribute than maybe other people had had during their first like year or so, just because or less formal opportunity I should say not that everybody isn't friendly, but just because of what's been going on with COVID and lockdown. That being said, I was able to work out of the office for about a month and a half and start to get to know everybody. And then it's been great because there have been so many like organized virtual meetups just socially and then professionally you know we have weekly team meetings and all of that which is incredible to feel like you're staying connected. And then even as I've had lots of challenges financially and then also just personally you know moving to a new city feeling isolated not really knowing anybody. They have just always been really open and happy to support me, and it's been really great to know that I have the department as a fallback in just a very personal and you know comfortable way I really feel like I'm part of something thanks to them. So would you say they've adapted well to kind of moving online then. I mean, there were definitely some hiccups in the beginning as with everybody. You know, zoom learning the platform navigating the breakout rooms, all of it, you know, because we do. We were already committed or si was already committed to a very personal touch and like flexible working schedule and working with people with young families. I'm so sorry my internet cut how so everything after being flexible and working with young families. Because you maybe repeat it please. Yeah, so I was just saying that they're flexible and adaptable to young families and that because of that they were really well equipped to adapt and see I as some kind of individual microcosm that's also balancing the wider like Stockholm Institute, kind of regulations and rules, I feel like si may have even been more proactive with some of their measures and adapting than the wider University was at times, which was really impressive. Brilliant that's so good to hear. Do you think that being. Would you consider yourself an international student. Absolutely. Yeah, do you think that that has had an effect on your studies. Absolutely. Yeah. When you talk access to finance and loans and even all the like support pots of money that's been going on. It's just not existent as a tier four visa holder I don't have access to public funds, meaning, you know, even though there were times that I was really food insecure, which you know, irony, because that's my area of study. But even while it was happening, I was, I thankfully knew the networks and things because it's where I work, but I couldn't. I couldn't just go to my GP and get a food bank kind of thing I don't qualify for healthy start vouchers I don't, you know, those there aren't those mechanisms for me as an international student. So, I'm very real like cultural things you know I've been in the UK for three years, and there's still so much, especially as a grad student on this level where even me just like using words that are common there, like I remember in one SCIT meeting. I used one of those words, and Sarah the director actually like, I had to say, you don't say that here that's really offensive, like in front of everybody. So there's still a lot of those kind of hiccups that even, yeah, after living here for years, I still encounter and still face. And yeah, everybody at SCI has been really great about it, and just really upfront and obviously I would much rather learn and have somebody tell me that so that way I don't continue those kind of mistakes and that, and to help me like with recommendations, you know, even for where to go hiking and where to walk and how to get around the city center which buses are the best and all that kind of stuff so yeah, I think I say it's been great in that respect. So, kind of looking back at your experience so so far, what's really stood out to you. So, I'm thinking about my experiences with SCI in particular. I think there was a good couple of months at the beginning of this year at the beginning of 2021 between January and through the end of March, where I was really struggling on a personal level. I was really worried about having to move because I can I can afford the place where I was living before I can afford the bills. I, as I said, like, didn't have great access to food. I was like fairly food insecure I wasn't sure how I was eating from week to week. I was really worried about paying my bills, and I had a lot of health issues due to the stress, migraines and not being able to eat, even when I did have food and all of those kinds of things. And remember, I talked to one of the ECRs who I'm quite close with, and she kind of discussed it with Sarah on my behalf, because she has a great relationship with her. And then I also reached out to Trudy, the admin staff about it and they were so incredible and so kind and just so willing to offer support. And Trudy actually went out of her way to get me a standing desk to help me with my back that's adjustable because I, you know, was having huge issues even just staring at a computer between my migraines and everything, and a like ergonomic office chair that I'm currently sitting in, you know, and I'm delivered to my house because I don't have access to a car and offering me resources for people that I could reach out to to help furnish my new house because it was unfurnished and I didn't have any of the things and, you know, just find people who really cared. And then the ECR, you know, met with me weekly just like on a friend basis she's now one of my closest friends as I said, just to go walking and just a touch base and check in and see how I was. Obviously there's been all of the weekly meetings and things like that so the support has just been incredible. It really has. Oh, it's so great to hear that you were supported like that. That's amazing. I mean, it's a good team. We have a really great bunch of people around us here I feel like. Right, if you have to summarize the stock environment Institute in three words what do you think that would be quick fire. So I can't do quick fire I have to think about things. I would say genuine. Hmm. I would say experienced. And I would say, this is hard. genuine experienced and flexible or adaptable. And just to like, add a little asterisk there, not just in like work schedules and coven and like that kind of stuff, but also just in how we work with other departments and how we want to be interdisciplinary and inclusive and really challenge ourselves to get as many perspectives as possible when we're conducting research. So flexible both academically and then like, logistically. It's been nitpicky but I do think you did go over three words there. Well, I did three words and then a clarification on one of them. Okay. So final thing. If you were speaking to someone who is thinking about applying here. So you do that PhD and just kind of research in general, what would you say to them. This is for SCI or York or both. Yeah, SCI mainly. I would say that we are a great group of people that's pretty tight knit, but really welcoming for anybody who's new, and that the support is unparalleled, I think, with any of the other departments, and that because of its unique position and its unique relationship to the wider kind of Stockholm Institute Network, like Stockholm Research Institute Network. There's just loads of opportunities for professional development and mentorship, and to gain really hands on practical experience and see your research translated into kind of these practical policies, whether it's workshops, whether it's, you know, a video or interviews or a blog article, there's just loads of opportunities specifically with SCI to really support you in doing those. Amazing. And finally, would you have any advice for them. People applying those. I would say that the university, like on a wider scale is quite complicated as an institution there are lots of departments, lots of partnerships between things. So I would say as you're applying be really clear on what your interests are and what kind of your boundaries are because it's really easy to be overwhelmed. And to get kind of pulled into lots of different directions which is great. But again, it's that kind of overload of choice right so know what you want to be really clear about it, and then look at all of these opportunities and with SCI in particular if you apply to this department, know that you'll be really supported and that there's lots of people you can go to for advice to help navigate all of those challenges. Brilliant. Thank you very much. I have no more questions for you. But if there is anything else that you think is incredibly important or just that you'd like to mention, then now's the time. I would just say, regardless of if you're an SCI or in the wider university, but obviously I'm biased especially in SCI, don't be afraid to get engaged. You know, go to those meetings, meet the people, even under these more difficult circumstances where we're all virtual there are just loads and loads of opportunities, and people do genuinely want to get to know you even with all the opportunities. So don't be afraid to go for those kinds of things, even though it can be really intimidating right at first. That's amazing advice. Thank you so much. Yeah, thank you so much for interviewing me. It's been a pleasure.