23rd May 2018
40-year old Oluwaseun Onasanya was born in the UK and emigrated to Nigeria as a young child, returning when she was 28 years old.
In Nigeria, she left secondary school and went to college to study journalism and administration. She was interested in nursing, however in her country, you could only go on to do a science-related degree such as nursing if you’d studied all the sciences at school. Oluwaseun explains “I did mainly arts subjects such as economics, commerce and religious studies and so I wasn’t allowed to study nursing at university.”
After leaving college in Nigeria she worked in the leading media house in Nigeria called Punch Newspapers as an adverts executive. It wasn’t until 2016 – ten years after she moved back to the UK - that Oluwaseun started thinking about retraining.
She came to Barking and Dagenham College and found out that she needed to start from scratch with her maths and her English; she jokes: “Luckily for me I passed; I’ve not got age on my side, it was quite hard!”
She then fell pregnant with her third child and took a break from studying, returning to the college in 2017 to join the fast track course. She will complete her Access to Nursing course in June 2018 having gained distinctions in every single module.
Oluwaseun says:
I’m very proud of myself; the eldest of my three children who is 15 is impressed too; she keeps saying to me ‘You tell me what a challenge the course is, but then you keep coming home with distinctions Mum!’.
She applied to 5 universities and got offers from all five! She’s chosen to go to Anglia Ruskin University, Chelmsford, to do a three year degree in Paediatric Nursing.
Regarding her time at Barking & Dagenham College, Oluwaseun comments:
I look forward to going to college every day. They are so supportive and they make sure they settle you in properly. Lecturers never, ever tire of explaining things over and over again if you need them to. It’s a great place to learn.
