24 June 2010
Twenty-year road to degree worth it, says graduate
Photo opportunity: 2pm on Thursday, June 24th. Sarah will be available for pictures in City Square before heading to the Caird Hall to receive her degree.
Broughty Ferry woman Sarah Griffiths will today graduate with a First Class Honours degree in Interior Environmental Design from the University of Dundee - 20 years after she began the course.
Sarah (37) first embarked upon her studies at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design, part of the University, in 1990 just after she left school only to drop out a year later.
Sarah says she suffered from doubts about what she wanted to do with her life at the time but always regretted dropping out and harboured ambitions of returning to education and finishing what she had started.
After leaving DJCAD, Sarah moved to Edinburgh and tried several career paths as well as becoming a mother to Freya, now 13. She was most recently working as a Shiatsu therapist when she decided that she could put off her unfinished business no longer and matriculated on the IED course in 2006.
Four years on, and Sarah has finally fulfilled her academic potential by achieving the top degree classification. She will receive her degree during the University’s graduation ceremony on Thursday, June 17th. She says this will be a very proud moment for both her and her family, and one that vindicates her decision to return to University.
'It’s been really, really hard but it’s definitely all worth it,' she said. 'I went to University straight after school but, for several reasons, it didn’t feel quite right for me at that time. Perhaps I was too young, but I just wasn’t confident that this was what I wanted to do.
'After leaving my course, I lived in Belgium briefly and then moved to Edinburgh. I’ve tried many different things over the years, but I never felt settled with any of them and I couldn’t shake the regrets about leaving the IED course when I did. As I got older, I felt surer that was where I should have been all along and when a project I had been involved in as a Shiatsu therapist came to an end, I felt the time was right.
'My parents both live here and they were able to help me massively with child care and other things. The course was more intense than I’d imagined it would be, but I was determined not to pass this chance up now that it had come round again.
'Being a parent means it’s still been really difficult, financially and in terms of time commitments, and I couldn’t have done it without my family’s help. Parents have to be really good with time management anyway, so I was at an advantage in some ways but it was a hard slog, no doubt about it.
'Obviously I also wanted to set a good example to Freya, but seeing how hard I worked might have the opposite effect and make her think that she never wants to go near a university!
'I’m really looking forward to my graduation. It will be really nice for my family, and, because they’ve given me so much support, I’m really glad we can all be there together. When things were at their hardest and I was up to my eyeballs, they supported me and encouraged me to carry on and I’ll unbelievably grateful to them for everything they did.'
Seeing her hard work pay off has inspired Sarah to continue her studies. After graduating she will begin a Master of Design course at DJCAD looking at urban agriculture, in particular allotments and where in Dundee would be suitable for new city growing projects
She will also fly over to Cuba for a few weeks in January to undertake a study trip looking at the urban agriculture movement in Havana after winning the F&A Bradshaw award in recognition of the high quality of her work.
Sarah will receive her First Class Honours Degree in Interior Environmental Design at the Graduation Ceremony at the Caird Hall on 2pm on Thursday, June 24th with her daughter, mother, father and grandmother looking on.
For media enquiries contact:
Grant Hill
Press Officer
University of Dundee
Nethergate, Dundee, DD1 4HN
TEL: 01382 384768
E-MAIL: g.hill@dundee.ac.uk
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