Our in-school mentors, also known as University Access Officers, provide mentoring and guidance to our students. This support is available to our students throughout their time in the programme, from finding out which subjects they are passionate about to applying to university.
“There were a lot of different things I wanted to go into”
Eloisa joined The Access Project when she was in Year 10. She has been tutored in Biology throughout sixth form. “I wasn’t completely sure what I wanted to study at university and The Access Project has been really helpful,” Eloisa said. “When looking at university courses in Year 12 and 13, I was looking at Physiotherapy, Accounting, Marketing… So there were a lot of different things I wanted to go into.”
Eloisa said that at first she was finding it difficult to decide what to study. “We looked at the universities and what subjects they required and started ruling courses out. At one point it was between Marketing and Educational Psychology.”
Eloisa’s mentor suggested an exercise to help her decide between the two courses. “I had a few sessions when we kept discussing my options. My mentor said that I should write a paragraph about my passions for both of the courses and see which one I write more about. This was a good exercise. And when I researched the two courses a bit more, I was able to make the decision to go with Marketing.”
“Having the support from The Access Project has made it a much easier process and experience”
University Access Officers also support students with writing their personal statements for university applications. “Because I was having a really difficult time narrowing down a course, I was struggling to write my personal statement. So we started it together and wrote out examples of research skills which could apply to different courses. Then my mentor sent me some questions, which I wrote out as bullet points and then we worked it into my statement. She also helped me do some wider reading around the course which has given me lots of things to add to my personal statement, which has been really useful.”
For Eloisa, applying to university is an important decision. “Applying is a stressful but exciting experience. There’s a lot of pressure because it’s just such a big decision. I feel that I have received support, and this has taken out quite a lot of the stress. Having the support from The Access Project has made it a much easier process and experience.”
Eloisa is keen to get her career started. “I’m just really excited to get into the working business world. I had some work experience in HR which I enjoyed a lot. The courses I have found now include accounting, IT, HR… so I feel like it gives me a good option to try out all of the different aspects of Marketing.”