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Alumni

Amy Holguin

I am currently studying Archaeology and Anthropology BA at Hertford College, University of Oxford.

What are your future plans and ambitions?

I want to become a full-time archaeologist – perhaps working in South America.

What has been the highlight of your life so far after leaving school?

Excavating at Pompeii! The site I was working on is thought to be the earliest bath house on the ancient site of Pompeii and the plot was later used for the expansion of the neighbouring house. It was an amazing experience working on this site, uncovering painted wall plaster and mosaic floors and finding beautiful artifacts such as an Egyptian glass bead and hundreds of carbonated olive stones.

Another highlight was winning the blades at our rowing race, Summer VIIIs, last year despite everyone thinking that we were going to plummet!

What is your favourite Teesdale memory?

I have so many amazing memories from Teesdale School, however one of the most wonderful experiences was going on the trip to China, exploring the ancient monuments such as climbing the Great Wall as well as interacting with the Chinese partner school and being invited by a host family for lunch and dinner.

Advice to my younger self...

Leap at every opportunity that is offered to you - even if you feel too shy or embarrassed.

You can invite one person to a dinner party - who do you invite and why?

I would invite a Neanderthal as there is lots of debate as to how human they were, but I believe that they aren’t that different to us. I mean “put a suit and a hat on a Neanderthal and they could slip on the New York subway train and be unnoticed”, may be a little far, but they could talk and created art. I think it would be really fascinating and debunk myths about Neanderthals being brutish cave men.

Neanderthal