Susan Browne
Having left school aged 15, no one believed that Susan Browne would become the first person – not only in her family, but in her community – to go to university.
Susan left school with low self confidence and thought it was her fault she found learning hard – it wasn’t until her mid thirties that her dyslexia was diagnosed. Aged 32, she decided to return to learning to help her daughter with homework, and in just 10 years has progressed to a postgraduate MSc in Applied Positive Psychology at the University of East London.
Her achievements are all the more remarkable because Susan comes from a disadvantaged area, which has one of the lowest rates of progression into higher education in the country. She has also battled depression, is a single parent and is a full-time carer for an 87-year old woman.
Some of her qualifications include GCSEs in Maths, Psychology and English, a BSc in Psychology, an Accreditation of Prior Experiential Learning (APEL), and completion of the National Mentoring Consortium’s Disability and Dyslexia Mentoring Scheme.
Susan has worked for five years as a UEL Student Ambassador and she is an active member of her local community, promoting education amongst her neighbours.
Her contributions have been recognised by the University of East London, who have awarded her with the Gibson Memorial Award in 2007 and the Jim Carter Memorial Award in 2008. She also featured on Channel 4’s Secret Millionaire series and as a result was funded for her MSc.
Susan said, “I never imagined that I would have got this far with my education. It has been very hard, but it has made me very strong and very proud. It has given me great riches and set me free from very, very low self-esteem.”