Former school struggler named Student of the Year.
A pupil who was expelled from school in a tough start to life, has been named Milton Keynes College Group’s Student of the Year.
Ciara-Leigh Filer-Hobbs has won the college’s overall Student of the Year title after being chosen from a group of award winners from every college department who were all honoured at last week's prize event.
Ciara is one of the first students to study for A Levels at the college and is taking Maths, Business and Computer Science, as well as being accepted onto the Scholars' Programme.
She’s also working towards her Duke of Edinburgh Gold Award and has opted to take the Extended Project Qualification; a voluntary piece of extra work for A Level students which will involve writing a 5000 word dissertation on her chosen subject: the effect of abuse in early life.
Ciara had a difficult start, including struggling at school, but her determination to succeed, and positive attitude have allowed her to achieve academically, and she has even been accepted onto the Oxford Brookes University mentoring scheme.
“I’m so grateful and so shocked to be picked from such an amazing group of individual winners and I’m very proud,” said Ciara.
“I always had it rough in school and I was expelled at the end of year eight for behaving badly and had to attend an alternative provision leading up to GCSEs. I was so scared that I would end up doing nothing with my life even though I’ve always loved education. I was picturing myself in 10 years just doing nothing.
“I had a difficult home life but meeting my foster parents made all the difference. With their support I started behaving again. Now I’m at college and I just love learning here. Everyone is so supportive, and I feel like I’m right back where I should be.”
“Ciara absolutely embodies the college ethos of delivering Fairer Futures for All, not just in what she’s achieving for herself but in her highly developed social conscience and strong desire to support others,” said Sally Alexander, Milton Keynes College CEO and Principal.
“She’s taking some tough courses but still finds the time and motivation to get involved at every opportunity. Her ambition is to become a Senior Enterprise and Technology Engineer for BP, and who would doubt that she’ll do exactly that?”
