{"id":285,"date":"2013-03-11T17:09:35","date_gmt":"2013-03-11T17:09:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/apply-2013\/?p=285"},"modified":"2020-10-26T16:42:08","modified_gmt":"2020-10-26T15:42:08","slug":"the-story-so-far-of-a-mature-student","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/student-blog\/2013\/03\/11\/the-story-so-far-of-a-mature-student\/","title":{"rendered":"The Story so far of a mature student\u2026."},"content":{"rendered":"

By Michelle Lillywhite<\/strong><\/p>\n

1st<\/sup> year BU Student, BA (Hons) Social Work<\/strong><\/p>\n

So when I decided at 35 that my career was going nowhere and that without a Social Work degree I wouldn\u2019t be able to progress any further I took a good hard look at myself and knew what the answer was \u2013 get \u00a0a degree!<\/p>\n

Some friends looked at me as if I was heading for an early mid-life crisis and others were so supportive that I knew it was the right thing to do. I just knew that I needed to be inspired to learn because my job in local authority had inspired me to be doing more than I was qualified to do. Luckily for me when I met my now Head of Year at an Open Day in September 2011 \u2013 I found the inspiration I needed \u2013 it was Bournemouth University for me!<\/p>\n

I am now six months into my course and can genuinely say I have not woken up once and thought \u2018I don\u2019t want to do lectures today\u2019 \u2013 how many of us can say that about our jobs for the last six months?<\/p>\n

Is it hard though? Oh yes! I am challenged every day to understand not only myself but the world in a different way. Previously held stereotypes that I had have had to be diminished to the distant past and I have had to find the right elements of my values and beliefs to take forward and find confidence in some new ways of thinking \u2013 but that is Social Work \u2013 complex and difficult and challenging every day!<\/p>\n

I have never thought of myself as academic \u2013 my previous grades prove that \u2013 but here at BU you are supported to believe in yourself, using the knowledge you have been chosen to be on the course. \u00a0Plus, \u00a0there is so much support available – all you have do is ask for it.<\/p>\n

I am due to head out onto my first placement in two weeks\u2019 time and I feel like a child going to Disney Land \u2013 I cannot wait!!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Michelle Lillywhite 1st year BU Student, BA (Hons) Social Work So when I decided at 35 that my career was going nowhere and that without a Social Work degree I wouldn\u2019t be able to progress any further I took a good hard look at myself and knew what the answer was \u2013 get \u00a0a… Read more » about The Story so far of a mature student\u2026.<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":279,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[336,1638],"tags":[27],"class_list":["post-285","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blogs-archive","category-undergraduate","tag-michelle-lillywhite"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/student-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/student-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/student-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/student-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/279"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/student-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=285"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/student-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":945,"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/student-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285\/revisions\/945"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/student-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=285"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/student-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=285"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/student-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=285"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}