Humans of Warwick - Claudia Griffin

Claudia Griffin

MRC Events & Catering Assistant, Warwick Mathematics Institute

“I never understood why we had to learn English, when we lived so far away!”

“I went to a private school back home in Santiago, Chile, where we were taught English. It was very complicated for me and I didn’t understand why we had to speak it, I wasn’t going to use it! I wasn’t very good at Maths either but more of that later.

Learning English did do me well. I went on to study translation and interpreting it back into Chilean. Then I moved into the financial sector and helped businesses set up in Chile because of the dual languages. After doing that for a while, my friend suggested we go to Andorra and work a ski season. That’s when my life changed completely.

First, I had to convince my dad that I could go. He was very old fashioned, I was his little girl, and he thought I should be at home. But he allowed me this one more chance to travel. While in Andorra I met an English guy and made plans to visit him in the UK in Nottingham. I had to convince my dad again to let me travel. While in the UK, my English friend proposed!

I had to go home and break this news to my family. My dad was asking ‘who’s this man taking you away’. Eventually all was ok though, my parents were happy with my decision, my future husband and his prospects. They knew that he would look after me.

We lived in Bristol for a while, where we had our first child. Then returned to Chile to be nearer my family. My husband really wanted to do his research though and was offered a place back in the UK. When we came to Warwick and I saw the campus, I knew that I wanted to work here as well. I’ve been here for seven years doing hospitality roles.

My latest job is here in the Maths department. It’s a real face to face role and I work with the academics, something I never thought I’d be able to do. I love it, I’m having the best time. We have a coffee morning every day in the lounge here in Zeeman, that’s been a tradition in Maths since day one. It’s just an hour for staff and PhD students to interact with each other. And every Friday afternoon we have an open talk about maths, everyone is welcome to attend, and we often finish with cheese and a glass of wine.

The University has been very kind to us as a family, we’ve made many friends. My daughter goes to the nursery here and we try and get involved with everything that goes on. We attend the Resonate events and the Christmas lights, we’re a real Warwick family!”