Alumni spotlight: an inspirational story

Sarah Miles graduated from Abertay University with a first class honours degree earlier this year. Now working in Edinburgh, she started her fantastic journey within the Perth College UHI hospitality department.

Here is her story in her own words.

I spent two years at Perth College UHI in the Hospitality department. It was an amazing two years and really helped me grow.

When I was 16 I was diagnosed with M.E, or Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. I went from a high-achieving student to someone who could barely get out of bed, unable to go to school and take exams, with a brain that could barely think clearly enough to string sentences together.

After a few years of slow progress, my health started to improve and I needed to think about how to get back into education. The only qualifications I had were Standard Grades, which weren't enough to get into Higher Education. Instead, I discovered that my local college offered an SVQ 2 level course in Hospitality. The SVQ was the perfect introduction back in to education for me. It had a large practical element to it, which gave me experience working in commercial kitchens and cooking for large numbers of customers. It also covered the basic groundwork in Food Hygiene and allowed me to refresh my computing, numeracy and communication skills. The SVQ then gave me the chance to progress on to an HNC in Hospitality, expanding on my skills and slowly introducing me back into the world of essay writing and academic work.

My illness had taken a lot of confidence and energy away from me, so taking on leadership roles and winning competitions with my skills was such a huge difference from where I'd been 2 years previously!

My lecturers were so supportive - they encouraged me to enter competitions and scholarships, reassured me when I needed it and pushed me when I needed that bit extra of a nudge. I grew so much with their support - my illness had taken a lot of confidence and energy away from me, so taking on leadership roles and winning competitions with my skills was such a huge difference from where I'd been 2 years previously!

The HNC then gave me the qualifications I needed to start my food science degree at Abertay as a direct entrant into second year, where I had to hit the ground running. Without the time spent at the college, I don't think I would have had the confidence and experience to cope with this at all - there's always a bit of a culture shock when transitioning to university work, but the belief my college lecturers had shown in me really helped me to push through and believe in my own abilities.

I gave my final dissertation presentation during national M.E awareness week - 10 years after I was first diagnosed.

And then there was three years of hard work, a lot of confusion and frustration at times, and overwhelming amounts of new knowledge. But I made it out the other side with a first, and an award for my achievements. Slightly ironically, I gave my final dissertation presentation during national M.E awareness week - 10 years after I was first diagnosed.

My journey through education hasn't been the most conventional, and it was difficult at first to know how I could even get back into education when I was 21 with no real qualifications. But the support and guidance given was so invaluable to my journey, and while it might have taken me an extra five years to get back on track, I wouldn't have had the same life experience and knowledge without it.

I think my old college lecturers might be a bit surprised to see where I am now - I was so insistent through college that I wanted to be a home economics teacher. Instead, I fell in love with the food industry and had a change of heart - now I'm working in quality systems, technical, and product development.