A huge congratulations to Nina Holguin, who last week achieved 2 As and a B in her A levels and secured a place at Oxford University where she will study ancient and modern history.
During her time at the sixth form, she achieved so much from teaching others about the evils of the holocaust after a trip to Auschwitz, learning about identity and reconciliation alongside German students in Berlin, organising a charity quiz night to raise funds to help a remote community in Peru to interviewing her grandmother who met Martin Luther King in 1967 as part of the Freedom City 2017 programme.
When she was in Year 9, Nina decided to tackle an extended writing task about the Rwandan genocide of 1994. This wasn’t part of the topic she was studying, it wasn’t a homework task, it wasn’t a piece of coursework, she just wanted to stretch herself. Around 3,000 words later she presented a meticulously researched and referenced essay. It was this piece of work that was the inspiration for the Past to Present journal published by the Teesdale History Research Group each term. Nina, of course, has written several articles for the journal. It was no doubt that this passionate pursuit of the past that impressed admissions tutors at Oxford University.
Head of History and Sixth Form, Dr Simon Henderson, said: “What makes Nina such a special young lady is her incredible openness to new challenges and ideas. Her thinking never stands still and she always wants to peel away another layer of a story in search of the truth. This is what makes her such a great historian and such an engaging student. She will be a superb undergraduate!”
With Nina's bright future ahead of her in Oxford, we know that she will continue her passionate pursuit of the past. We might also persuade her to be guest editor of an issue of the Past to Present journal in a year or two and inspire another group of Teesdale historians.