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We Are Essex

Inspirational stories

Portrait of Asha Ali

"My main goal is to make sure everyone feels comfortable here at Essex."

My parents are my biggest inspiration. It must have been so hard to move from Somalia to Norway, learning a whole new language from scratch, getting degrees, raising five kids.

Read Asha's story
Carolyn's story
The intervention that we received from different services inspired me to be here. It is thanks to all those professionals that saved my family that I am here.
Tom's story
Competition inspires me. There is always competition in my family at home but I’m pretty much always losing to my sister because she’s a doctor.
Muhammad's story
It’s important to remember that it doesn’t matter where you come from, you can achieve your goals if you work hard for it.
Rasheedat's story
Literally, my religion is my liberation
Lucy C's story
You shouldn’t be limited just because you didn’t do it at 18
Shane's story
I think my parents planned for me to take over their dairy farm in rural Ireland. But instead I went to university – studied politics - and, as a result, I am here today.
David's story
These things stir up emotion inside us and it’s ok to talk about that
Susanna's story
Bit by bit you get through the day, you get through that anxiety
Constance's story
I want to take this back home, I want to rebrand the way mental health rehabilitation goes
Camila's story
I’m the first in my family to study abroad, and the first to get a higher education too
Nicola's story
I didn’t have a good time at school, I didn’t get on with sixth form, I’ve had some personal struggles and I just felt like I had to do something for my kids.
Gabija's story
"I would really love to do some work with NATO, especially now NATO is very focused on Eastern Europe and Lithuania. I would like to be a part of that."
Laura's story
I read something that said ‘Working in a hotel is like being in a performance’ and that really resonated with me.
Amy-Julie's story
I wanted to do everything I could for my people.
Zeina's story
I want to bring hope to all refugees that they will be able one day to choose the direction they want to take in life.
Shawn's story
But the more my family pushed me into it, the more I didn’t care about it.
Ieva's story
I visited 17 European countries in two months. It was the best time of my life!
Taran's story
One of my biggest goals this year is to let students know what support there is available to them
Iain's story
It’s still uniform but in a different walk of life. I love that I can actually make a massive contribution when people are feeling distressed.
Patrick's story
A typical day on placement would include shadowing a biomedical scientist or microbiology consultant.
Monika's story
Languages are just tools we use to fulfill a purpose. That’s what I find most fascinating about them!
Suraj's story
You can tell that Essex cares a lot about their students and their emotional needs.
Phil's story
I try to relax by playing cricket, but it isn’t always exactly relaxing.
Lewis' story
Developing nerd reputation is what I’m going for.
Lydia's story
I want to teach a younger generation about how important it is to respect nature and take care of our oceans.
Charlie's story
In programming you have to follow the rules. I prefer to be as creative as possible.
Fernanda's story
My family is pretty cool. They let us be and they allow us to dream.
Alex's story
It’s weird to think that in ten years’ time there will still be that radio station that we created.
Jak's story
I've learned that we're not all competing with each other in life.
Harriet's story
I'm going to Indonesia with the University later this year.
James' story
It’s my view that technology within society is being driven by people with a very narrow view of how society works
Alison's story
I've been a feminist for 40 odd years.
Jawhen's story
My aspiration is to find out a little more about my roots.
Steven's story
If it was something you could just get off the back of a cornflakes packet, everyone would do it.
Waliur's story
I wanted to experience life outside of where I grew up.
Alex's story
You’re trained to distill the world into manageable chunks and learn that some questions can’t be answered the way that you think.
Natasha's story
Sometimes it’s the small changes that can have the biggest impact.
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