A woman who was the first in her family to go to university is graduating with a First Class Honours and is going on to study for a Masters degree at Edge Hill University.
Rosie Sumner, from Liverpool, has studied through a pandemic and struggled with mental health issues, and has overcome challenges to achieve a BA (Hons) in English Literature.
She is now using her own experiences of being diagnosed with autism to study for a Masters in Critical Autism Studies.
Rosie said: “The support I received over the past three years has been amazing. Staff in the English department honoured my autism support plans and nurtured my passion in writing, which really helped. I had the opportunity to write about personal subjects close to my heart, the lecturers were all open minded and made sure I had access to a variety of resources. My personal tutor was also really supportive.”
“When I was struggling with personal issues during my second year, my lecturers granted extensions, and they encouraged and reassured me throughout.. Despite the challenges I still went on to gain a first, I’m so relieved all the pressure I put on myself to work hard was worthwhile.’
Rosie’s first experience of Edge Hill came when she visited for an Open Day. She said: “I’d been to a number of open days at different universities and when I visited Edge Hill I was so impressed with how inclusive the campus is.
Alongside her studies, Rosie took advantage of a ten-week Student Digital Internship and gained so much from the experience it opened up opportunities to work with the Library and Learning Services team.
Before finishing her degree, Rosie thought her natural progression would be to do an MA in English Literature followed by a PhD. Rosie’s advice to new students is: “Don’t put limitations on yourself, be open minded to discover new and exciting things. I’m now going on to do an MA Social Sciences (Critical Autism Studies), a programme I never knew existed, but I’m so excited to get started in September.”
To discover more about our courses, please visit ehu.ac.uk/study.
July 20, 2023
