Lisburn woman on journey from growing up in care to defying odds at university
A woman from Northern Ireland who grew up in care has opened up on her journey through education to university.
When she was growing up, Lauren Stewart attended a special school, before moving to a grammar school for GCSEs and A Levels and eventually dropping out of school. Throughout her early years in education, she was told university may not be for her as a care experienced young person.
But now, the 25-year-old has defied the odds and is now in her first year studying biochemistry at Queen's University in Belfast. She said the university's Widening Participation Unit has helped her settle in and find people she can relate to.
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The Widening Participation Unit is designed to raise young peoples’ aspirations and encourage students from all backgrounds to fulfil their potential. It aims to make higher education more accessible to those with the academic ability, who are least likely to pursue it.
Speaking to Belfast Live, the Lisburn woman said: "It's definitely been a huge transition and adjustment in settling in here. I find that the provision of the Widening Participation Unit has really helped sort of smooth the path for me to success, even getting to meet other care experienced students.
"It's a big change, especially considering when I was at school, I sort of hid that part of myself, and it's almost been nice to find a community of peers that understand."
Opening up on her previous experience of education, Lauren said: "Originally, I actually went to a special school as I have a physical disability that affects my mobility and walking. I went to the special school from age three up until 14 when I started doing a dual placement between the special school and another grammar school for my GCSEs.
"I eventually transitioned to the grammar school full-time for sixth form to do my A Levels and it was a huge adjustment. I've never had that experience of being solely focused on academics.
"At my previous school I'd been told that maybe university wouldn't be for me and it was something that I wanted as far back as I can remember. I really let that get into my head.
"When I moved for sixth form it was going well at first, but I began to struggle with my mental health at about 17, I kind of had anxiety and depression. Eventually it got to the point where I dropped out of education."
Throughout this time, Lauren began to struggle with her mental health, but was able to give education another go after working on herself with the help of a therapist.
She explained: "I'd just reached such a low, I didn't really have any passion or spark left. I thought then that I'd sort of missed the boat in terms of getting being able to go to university.
"I started my access course with SERC at the age of 21, I was there for two years and it helped massively build my confidence. It showed me that I was able to achieve and I had a lot more capacity to succeed than I'd ever believed was possible."
Patricia Hampson is the Widening Participation Unit Manager at Queen's University. She said young people coming from a background of care experience are underrepresented in higher education for a number of reasons.
"We find it can be because of disrupted education at a younger age, having to transition between foster care placements or other family childcare services," she added.
"It can be a very disruptive time for young people and sometimes they don't always achieve as well in school as they can do, and they have that natural potential.
"What we find generally is those barriers in terms of young people having so many things going on in their lives in terms of maybe not having the self-belief that they actually can achieve well do really well in their educational journey and then also maybe end up at somewhere like Queen's."
Giving advice to other care experienced young people with aspirations of higher education, Lauren added: "Ten years ago, I never would have believed I could get here. I felt that there were so many hurdles and just too many barriers for me to be able to get to university.
"To anyone else in a similar position I would say take time, work on yourself and reach out if you need support. There's nothing wrong with getting that, and it pays off in the end."
Video by Belfast Live videographer Harry Bateman.
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