Faces of Suffolk

Welcome to Faces of Suffolk. Every week on social media, we will feature a story from one of our students, staff or alumni. The aim of Faces of Suffolk is to showcase our people and the stories that have shaped who we are today.

Stories range from fearless and courageous, to inspirational and entertaining. We hope you enjoy Faces of Suffolk and enjoy finding out about who we are and who makes the University of Suffolk the bold, fearless and inspirational community that it is today.

Students, staff and alumni - if you are interested in Faces of Suffolk and would like to tell your story, we're all ears. Drop an email to facesofsuffolk@uos.ac.uk with your name and a brief overview of your story.

Faces of Suffolk

- Lauren Berry

I had been listening to a podcast called ‘The Guilty Feminist’ who support Help Refugees, a charity that distributes food and clothing to refugees. So I took myself off to volunteer in Calais during my summer break; I thought I would go and see what I could do. It felt like a ri...

- Chloe Sage

I loved maths; it was all I had wanted to do. I went away to university and started my maths degree but in my first year, I fell ill quite suddenly. I remember the doctor saying to me, ‘we need to get you to hospital’. They couldn’t give me a diagnosis. At first, they thought ...

- Chris Simson

I was told in high school that I would never make it to university because of my dyslexia. They told me to find more practical routes or something hands-on, like construction. I was going through testing at school for my dyslexia, but the person who was doing my testing left, so I h...

- Isaac Francis

I’m from Galway in Ireland, and when I first moved to Ipswich, I didn’t really know anyone other than my family. I was a massive loner! That’s why I started training - I wanted something that would occupy my time. Back in Ireland, I was involved with sports all my life. I was ...

- Kayley Winterson

I was put in to care at the beginning of secondary school. It was really disruptive - I was constantly told I couldn’t go to university and that it wasn’t made for people like me. That just baffled me. It could be easy for someone in my situation to go down the wrong path, but I...

- Amy Carpenter

I guess you could say I’m not your stereotypical careers adviser. I started speedway racing when I was 8 years old; my dad bought my first junior bike. I was the Ipswich mascot for a few years and we would go to Wimbledon every Wednesday evening so I could ride before and after t...

- Brogan Tyler

I was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes in the second year of my A levels. It was completely out of the blue and that was something I had to take on board whilst starting university. I was only diagnosed at 16 so it was quite a big change sitting my A level exams, starting university a...

- Carla Smith

Since graduating, I’ve been working in homeless prevention helping people from all different walks of life, from victims of domestic abuse to people suffering with mental health problems and addictions. It’s very different to my photography degree. I was volunteering at a homele...

- Chitra Muliawan

I came here from Indonesia to study Psychology and Early Childhood Studies. It really interests me, especially the education side of it. I’ve seen a lot of poverty where I come from and I feel like if we could help people with things like education, it would be really good for the...

- Craig Martin

I think it’s safe to say I’m not your stereotypical librarian! I don’t own a cat and I only very rarely say “shush”! ...

- Aycan Benekli

I came to England from Cyprus - it was quite a scary move to make. I always knew I wanted to come to the UK to study but I never wanted to go somewhere crowded, like London. I’m from quite a small place so Ipswich kind of feels like home. I don’t really get homesick much, I thin...

- Brandon Orton

I was unhappy in my 9-5 job and I felt very low last year, so I decided to do something about it. I applied to study Event and Tourism Management. I’ve never exactly known what I want to do with my life but I’ve always had an interest in tourism and the events industry. I love t...

- Liz Thurlow

I have always loved science and I started off by going to med school. It wasn’t for me and I dropped out. I remember coming back and thinking, what am I going to do with my life?! I knew I always wanted to be a teacher; all I did when I was little was play teachers over and over. ...

- Jasmin Taylor

In my last year of primary school, we were given a project on mountains. My parents suggested going to my chosen mountain on holiday so we had some ski lessons at the Suffolk dry ski slope. I loved it and from there I got in to the race team and was spotted by the director of the Br...

- Deborah Norwood

I began studying Adult Nursing at another university, but after catching glandular fever, my health went downhill and I became too poorly to carry on. Going to uni was something I had always wanted to do, so dropping out was a really hard decision to make. It took ten years for me t...

- Adam Stiff

I’m the Technician for Sport Science at the University; I studied here in 2012 but previously I worked in insurance for 11 years until I was made redundant. I saw the redundancy as a massive opportunity and decided to travel the world for a year, visiting South East Asia (Thailand...

- Allanah Peck

In November 2014, I was diagnosed with bipolar disorder after years of struggling to understand why I behaved and thought in certain ways. I was working at the time, but the company wasn’t supportive and I ended up having to leave due to the discrimination I experienced. It was di...

- Emily Rowling

I was in a job that I didn’t 100% enjoy and it wasn’t challenging enough for me, but I didn’t really think about leaving it. It was only when my grandad suddenly passed away that it shocked me into thinking about what I wanted to do with my life. It woke me up in a sense, it m...

- Emma Sturman

It all started in high school when I studied Design and Technology and worked with resistant materials. That’s when I realised I wanted to go in to engineering. I started off as an apprentice, which was a bit more hands on. It’s quite a diverse industry; I’m studying Operation...

- Emily Gillbanks

I have type 1 diabetes. Sometimes you have good days and sometimes you have bad days. When I get stressed out, it can really affect it. So starting university, coming to a new place and making new friends was quite a stressful time, but it was important to me that I was open about i...

- Maria Sacalas

I was born in Bucharest, Romania. My school years were not easy; I was about 13/14 years old when my mum got really sick. I was about to go through a difficult exam at the time and my mum wasn’t feeling well…if my dad hadn’t gone to her at that moment, she wouldn’t be here a...

- Mario Coleman

I’ve been a comic book fan since childhood; every time my Mum went shopping she would pick up The Beano and The Dandy. I knew early on that I wanted to do something with comics. I opened up my own comic book store with my friend when I was 25. It started off in my Mum’s attic as...

- Sophie Leung

At first, I was adamant I wasn’t going to university. I think this was mainly down to not believing in myself enough to be able to achieve a degree! My brother had graduated and I was so proud of him, and I could see how proud my parents were. My parents are so supportive - the...

- Chantelle Deuchars

I really wanted to learn Makaton - children’s sign language. In college, I studied Children’s Care, Learning and Development and we spent two days a week on placement. I worked with this little boy who had autism; I loved him to bits and it’s honestly one of the most rewarding...

- Vanina Hangu

I came back to studying after a very long gap at 33 years old. Where I was born in Romania, it was quite a harsh life and I never had the opportunity to study. I’ve moved 17 times in three different countries, and my family and friends are in Italy now and I miss them a lot. I tri...

- Zoe Garnett

I started university in September 2013, excited to begin a new chapter in life. Unfortunately within the first few weeks, something changed. I wasn’t myself. I’d started to retract from myself and others completely. My friends and family were just keeping me afloat of the river ...

- Luke Penning

Creating my own film production business is something I had always wanted to do. I was 16 and I remember appreciating Warner Bros and thinking it would be cool to create something of my own, something to give an identity to my work. I didn’t realise the magnitude of it back then a...

- Rachel Gilbey

I applied for Midwifery but the year before I was due to go, I was diagnosed with Crohn’s Disease. I spent five weeks in hospital and had an operation. I was in recovery and started my course in February 2012, but became really unwell again and had to go back in to hospital. ...

- Rosie Miller-Clark

I’ve always been the arty, creative one. Where there were flaws and struggles with my dyslexia, I overcame it and tried not to see it as a negative, but as a positive. It was my mum who realised it when I was about five or six. She rang the school who said ‘she’s just lazy’ ...

- Steve Smith

I’ve entered the Talisker Whiskey Atlantic Challenge. Every year it starts at the Canary Islands and you row 3,000 miles to finish in Antigua. They say more people have been in to space and climbed Everest than rowed across the Atlantic Ocean. I’ve been a rower for about two yea...

- Millie Osman

At the age of two and a half, I was diagnosed with Leukaemia. By four and a half, after two years of chemotherapy and my parents fearing they were going to lose me, I survived. After receiving such fantastic care I knew I wanted to go into children’s nursing and it just so happene...

- Gemma Skipper

I’m studying Early Childhood Studies and automatically you think of primary teaching, but I don’t want to be a teacher. I want to travel and set up schools to help people who are less fortunate than us. Sometimes I look at my life and I think yeah, I’ve had it all.  I’ve al...