My Story
The short answer to whether I always knew I wanted to be a teacher/tutor is: no, definitely not. In fact, I come from a family of teachers, so I was determined to break the mould and say I’d never do anything like that!! But here we are…
The journey to EJUCATE has been long and not always easy. I was an all-rounder at school and was lucky to thrive academically, as well as take part in lots of extra-curricular activities; this meant I was lucky to leave school with a string of As and A*s behind me, as well as lots to put on UCAS applications and future CVs. However, looking back, I suffered with chronic perfectionism, always believing I had to be the best and that failure wasn’t acceptable. Through my adult experiences thus far, I have learnt how unhealthy and debilitating this was, leading to so many future problems later in life.
Toying with the idea of studying medicine and becoming a doctor, I decided to study Biology at university, to keep that option open but giving me more time to decide. I graduated from the University of Bath in 2017 with a First Class Honours degree, including a professional placement year, where I worked for the pharmaceutical company, Pfizer. This gave me my first taste of the corporate world; I was marketing their kidney cancer drugs and, working for a regional team, flew all over the world. I loved the buzz and adrenaline of the year, which made me believe that the corporate world was for me. Upon graduating, I therefore secured a role with a Corporate Communications and PR agency in London, working within the Life Sciences Team as an Account Executive.
However, I quickly realised this wasn’t for me; my mental health (which was already in a fragile state after a difficult final year at university) took a spiral downhill. It was during this time that I also came to terms with the fact that I was not only battling anxiety and depression, but the additional vile beast of anorexia nervosa. This was clearly developing during my final year at university, where both socially and academically things were challenging. I felt isolated and alone, with no one to talk to and life felt completely out of control; so that left food and exercise as the only things that were in my power to influence. With the anorexia tightening its grip and my mental health deteriorating, I quit the job with the PR agency in April 2018 and began looking for in-house roles, believing a return to a role, like that at Pfizer, would help.
However, a challenging couple of months and time to reflect made me realise that I was making a mistake and completely venturing down the wrong career path- I studied science to help people and felt I had detoured so far away from that and was no longer fulfilling that desire.
It was in September of 2018 that I therefore started tutoring; my Mum suggested I get a part-time role with Explore Learning, whilst I thought about my long-term plan. However, as soon as I started, I fell in love with the role. I finally felt happy and excited about my work; every day I went in, I made a difference to countless children’s lives and the love, support and kindness of my colleagues, the children and their families made me finally feel appreciated and fulfilled. Explore noticed my talent quickly, putting me on various training programmes so that I could teach their specialist courses, such as the 11+, Creative Writing and Succeed in Secondary. I was mentored and trained brilliantly, picking up so many useful skills, tips and tricks. Eventually, I became compere-trained to help run the centre and became one of the top few ‘Five Star Tutors’ across the whole country, becoming part of the Lead Project to mentor newer staff members and help train new tutors.
Sadly, at the beginning of 2019, the battle with anorexia reached its peak. Although I was finally happy in work (and still maintain to this day that the job at Explore saved my life) it was sadly a case of a little too late. In February of that year, I was therefore admitted to Bethlem Royal Hospital and spent 7 months there. During that time, all I wanted to do was return to Explore Learning and the children- it became a goal to work towards and kept me inching forward. Friends bought in presents from the children and their families and I took those into the dining room with me, knowing I needed to get better and build my strength back. I wanted to be an inspiration, forever showing children that with grit, determination, hard work and self-belief, you could climb back from the edge and beat even the biggest demons.
I was discharged in September 2019 and it was then that a family approached me about teaching their daughter privately, in addition to Explore Learning. I had never considered private tutoring until then, but felt I had nothing to lose and should give it a go. EJUCATE has essentially grown from that moment- slowly and organically. I have grown from tutoring one student to currently 21, purely through word-of-mouth and recommendation. I have never had to actively market or advertise, as my wonderful families have simply recommended my services to friends and family. I officially launched EJUCATE in February 2022; the business model was focused on offering a holistic style of 1:1 tutoring, which I felt hadn’t really been done before. EJUCATE is more than just a tutoring service- I aim to encourage, motivate and inspire my students, with the focus on building self-esteem and resilience. I don’t want children to make the same mistakes I did, thinking life is solely about exams, grades and climbing the career ladder. EJUCATE children will be equipped with academic skills of course, but also with fundamental life skills; I want to use my past experiences to help inspire children and create a happier and healthier future generation.
I now have so many exciting ideas and plans for the future. EJUCATE has saved me many a time in the last 4 years; days can still be challenging and I think I will always be fighting the demon in my mind to some degree. But every day when I go out to teach, I feel free. The children and their parents light up my life and now, finally, I am doing what I set out to do- aspiring to inspire. With the hard lessons I have learnt through my difficult journey, I want to show each child that he/she is important. Life is not all about grades, exams and report cards; it’s about resilience, it’s about determination and it’s about doing what sets your soul on fire.
Thank you so much for reading my story. I’d absolutely love to hear from you, so if you’d like to get in touch, please do enquire now.
