My education in my early years became an obstacle due to my ill health, when I was a little boy at the age of 14 I was diagnosed with epilepsy, more recently within the past 3 years I was given a diagnosis of borderline personality disorder, which can have a significant influence on my life.
Throughout my past 2 years experiencing college, it has been a challenge but I was proud to complete my HND, the grade I got was lower that what I wanted but considering the influences I had throughout the experience the fact that I passed the HND at all was an incredible achievement in itself. (throughout the 2 years I was in hospital for 2 months, also having to spend time off college due to the recent diagnosis)
Now I have recovered to a point where I feel ready again I have found myself inspired by the prospect of learning further, more importantly in the world of technology. The world is changing rapidly with more and more innovative and fascinating ideas are being produced, so I engaged in education to become part of this evolution and most importantly dramatically improve my employment prospects, as I became frustrated by the lack of opportunity. The HND that I achieved through Cardonald College has proven to be an excellent platform, Glasgow Clyde college offer the best facility to support and progress any willing student that is looking to get the best out of their study material. The next natural stage is to study at degree level, as employment prospects demand a degree at least.
As a mature student has proven useful to the college as I have progressed to being involved in what is called a PC clinic where only a select few are brought in to be part of the group, we as a group then provided a free service where we would offer thoughts, advice and repairs for a full range of problems. I was selected as class rep which has also been an excellent learning opportunity for me, allowing me to impose and develop my professional attitude which has proven an excellent tool outside of the college environment, where I actively engage in coaching and progressing young peoples attitudes towards sport and more specifically football, where I lead a group of U13s footballers, I also in my spare time volunteer in editing, social media work, learning some python and some photoshopping.
Cyber Security is a key subject in todays world, businesses are looking for more ways to make their infrastructure as secure as possible as todays hackers and anonymous groups are becoming more and more active, its becoming clear that a lot of business are behind the times, using simple things like out of date operating systems to more complex out of date physical equipment. I have found myself excited by the prospect of making positive contributions to improving these aspects that are lacking, to earn a complete degree would provide me the authority to contribute to this.
My overall aim when I complete my degree is to gain an excellent position of employment to allow myself a more comfortable way of living. I have significant life experience, I have an employment history and have an understanding of the needs and requirements of everyday life, the demands on a university student and the expectations in terms of conduct and attitude. Now that I have recovered to a point where I feel I can be capable of achieving an excellent grade I would be excited to attend UWS.
Thank you for reading.
Gillen