Alumni, Maria Babu is now in her first year at The University of Central Lancashire (UCLan) and is really enjoying her course.

She left college and had two gap years before starting Medicine at UCLan. She used that time very productively. She was elected Chair for the Asian Women’s Forum in Chorley. The organisation supports women coming from domestic violence abuse or those that are recently divorced.

Maria also gained her certificates in an interpreter course in Urdu and Punjabi languages. She is also employed part time by the college as an interviewer and uses her experience as a former student to her advantage.

“I feel that I can be so helpful to pupils coming in for interviews as I already know from my own experience what to say to them. I know which tutors to tell them about and explain how they put so much time into us and provide so much support as we get smaller class sizes for example.”

Now busy with her Medicine course, the lockdown hasn't restricted her progress. She has been able to get into the labs and attended all her clinical skills classes and even got to work with real patients in order to practice giving consultations including blood pressure tests, respiratory and cardiovascular examinations to get a full history.

This is all done with the course tutors and fellow students in order to get feedback on how well she has done.

The former Albany Academy pupil is studying to become a doctor and she explained that this is something she has always wanted to do to make a difference.

“As I come from Pakistan originally (came to UK aged 9) I know that it is an area where people do not have access to the most basic healthcare. I like the idea of going back to these types of communities in the future to help and even in communities that are under privileged in this country is one of my goals.”

The future doctor has fond memories of studying on the A Level Professional Honours Programme and has often shared her experiences with school leavers as part of our open events.

She added: “The A Level Professional Honours Programme gave me access to opportunities such as exclusive quest speakers from industry and brilliant work experience. They provided exceptional one to one support. I would not be studying Medicine if it was not for the A Level teaching staff!”