Hi my name is Rehana, and this is my journey.
In 2017 on GCSE results day my grades were not as I expected and I was not able to enter sixth form. I thought what’s the point of me applying anywhere else?
I looked into Stamford College as it was recommended to me by a friend even though it was a bit far from where I live. The college gave me all the support I needed to apply for a college bus which helped me a lot as I wouldn’t have been able to attend without that transport.
I applied for Level 2 Health and Social Care as I needed another GCSE to qualify for the Level 3 which I didn’t have. My Level 2 lecturers Jasmin and Marie helped me from my first day and gave me all the confidence and support I needed to build my self-esteem. Alongside my Health and Social Care Diploma, I passed my English Language GCSE exam which I had failed at school which allowed me to get on to my Level 3 course. I’ve now completed my diploma as one of the highest achieving students and I am heading to University of Nottingham to study Adult Nursing.
At Level 3 my lecturer Kate was such an inspirational person who always took her time out for each student to help and support us in any way. In year 2, I met Chrissie as the new head of Level 3 Year 2, she is also an amazing lecturer. They’ve supported me in so many ways to help me get to where I am today. Even though I had panicked about my extended assessment I passed with a grade A, which to me was shocking!
I owe a big thank you to Jasmin, Kate, Marie, Sharon, Chrissie and to the Health and Social Care department. Anyone studying this course will experience an amazing amount of support from this team. I am proud to say that I studied at Stamford college!
If you’re considering studying Health and Social Care, my advice would be to respect your lecturers. When you’re having your day off having fun with your family, they are marking your work when they could be spending time with theirs. When a lecturer asks you to improve your work it’s not for their benefit, it’s for yours. They already have their degrees, it’s you who needs it. I used to say “why on earth do I need to improve my work even more?” but now I understand it was all to give me the new skills I needed for university.
If University Centre Stamford offered a Nursing degree, I would have 100% have gone there because they made me feel so happy and comfortable. If you are in a similar situation to me, just work your way through and I promise the effort you put in will pay off.
In general, my advice to anyone joining the college would be;
“If you want to make a change it starts from you! No matter how hard something is or if you are going through a difficult time remember you can’t change what already happened, what you can change is the future. If I can achieve my goals, so can you…”
