About
My story
Circa 2023, pictured in my usual state of politely asking a cat to get off my keyboard​
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I liked learning, but I hated school, mostly because I felt like school hated me. It wasn't a good fit for either party.
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I dropped out of school at 14 years old.
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I struggled, and figured out my path over a few difficult years, eventually getting to enter a local college as a bag of nerves in my early twenties to study social science.
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I won a place at a local university, and entered a four year degree program as a slightly bigger bag of nerves as a slightly older early twentysomething.
Whilst it was difficult, I enjoyed university life. I enjoyed it so much, I hung around for ages, getting a BA, an MSc, and eventually a PhD.
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Even though I loved learning, studying did not come easily to me. I always struggled with motivation around homework, and as university feels like nothing but homework sometimes, I had to figure things out as I went along. ​I figured my own methods out over my time at university, slowly building and refining these skills one assignment at a time.
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One thing that really struck me, was that I picked up the subjects quickly, but I had to figure out how to actually study.
I always tended to roll my eyes or zone out a bit when people talk about study strategies, they always sounded like people who had way more time, way more patience, and way more organisation than I had. It didn’t happen overnight, and there was a lot of trial and error, but I figured out what worked for me.
Towards the end of my undergraduate studies, I was beginning to nail down how I needed to work. I also found that I was helping colleagues with some of the study skills bits at times, just as they were helping me with areas that I struggled with, still being a bit of a bag of nerves, albeit a slightly lesser bag of nerves by this point.
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I may or may not have gotten a bit distracted building dozens of these when I should have been writing my dissertation
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When I started my post-graduate studies, I began teaching, tutoring, and mentoring. It was mind boggling that after struggling with the idea of even going to college a few years prior, I was eventually standing in front of a few hundred undergraduate students teaching them. I never envisioned that I’d be able to do this, and I never expected that I’d actually enjoy it once I started!
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I mentored and supported many students during this period through the university’s disability service, mostly students who were returning to education after being away a long time, or with neurodiversities, occasionally both. I loved this one to one support I could give people, and help them take the shortcuts I had found about my own path to being “an academic”.
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I supported students from disciplines I had some familiarity with, such as history, counselling, and community education, and also students studying subjects that still puzzle me to this day, such as physics, and naval architecture.
These experiences taught me that no-matter what you’re studying, no-one ever really explains how to study, how the university system works, and the different expectations. I felt like I could help people with different ways to bring out their strengths, to complement their existing skills, and find workarounds to what they might have struggled with in the past, or were struggling with currently.
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I read a lot of boring books for my studies. This was not one of them. You need to find the fun in studying wherever you can!
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I started a job working with neurodiverse young people towards the end of my PhD. My role was to help them transition into more meaningful places of education, volunteering or work. I learned a lot about mentoring, working with young people, neurodiversity, and a lot more about myself during this time. I then relocated to another part of the country where I spent several years working with homeless and vulnerable populations using a strength based coaching model.
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I currently work in a local higher education institute, continuing my work of assisting young people make their dreams into realities, with as little pain and trauma (and as much fun as possible) along the way.
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NSS is my attempt to help learners of all ages avoid potential trauma that studying, academia, and education can impose on people with neurodiversities.
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Learning shouldn’t be scary, it shouldn’t be hard! But for many of us, myself included, it can be. But having been through the system, on the outside, and on the inside, I see hope. I see strength. I see possibilities.
We all just need a little bit of help sometimes, in the way that works for each of us.
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By this point, I had taken to making lots of coffee, and photographing it with toys as a way of keeping myself caffeinated and amused.
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My academic bits
PhD Social Work
Oct 2013 - Jun 2019
Qualitative study of disability hate-crime and research relating to social work practice in central Scotland.
MSc Applied Educational & Social Research
Sep 2012 - Sep 2013
Masters by research of education research design, analysis, methods, methodology, and practice.
BA Sociology Honours (2:1)
Sep 2008 - Jun 2012
Sociology with modules in Politics, History, English.
HNC Social Sciences
Aug 2007 - May 2008
Psychology, communications, geography, history, sociology, and politics.
