Making the most of USP College

Hi everyone, it’s Amy Louise here, I decided to put myself forward and ask to write a blog article for the College for you all as I’m leaving this year, and I figured it would be a good idea to leave something behind for you to remember me by.

Here’s a little bit of background on myself for those of you that don’t know me. I joined USP College (Seevic Campus) in 2018 after completing my GCSE’s in secondary school, and at first, I applied for A-Levels but then later decided that it wasn’t for me, so I switched to the one Level 3 Health & Social Care, and I’ve loved it ever since.

As a lot of you may know if you’ve been following the Storm sports accounts on social media, that I am one of the original squad members for the hockey team that was started up this year. Being able to play hockey and represent the College in fixtures and tournaments against local sixth forms and colleges, as well as represent them at regionals in Hertfordshire was an amazing experience. We were able to play against some of the top schools in the county. We even placed third in regionals! I have to admit, like any player, I have has a few injuries, but nothing that was too bad for the season, meaning that I was lucky enough to play in all of the matches. I’m never going to forget our laughs at Palmer’s Campus when we train, or our celebration karaoke on the minibus on the way home from winning. And in case you couldn’t tell already, playing sports for USP is something you don’t want to miss, you’ll have tons of fun, make new friends and have loads of memories to take away with you when your time at college comes to a close like mine is soon.

Also, roughly for the past two years, I have been working towards my Level 3 qualification in Health & Social Care. I decided to switch to this course from my A-Levels as it was made more sense for me to do something I was truly interested in, and even while I was figuring out the exact path I wanted to take between photography and my other interests, I figured it to be a good idea to take this course to have it under my belt so that mainly I could care for my grandparents when they enter their elderly phase. But not only that, studying Health & Social Care has made me more aware of the many things that occur in the background, such as illness, caring for specific age groups like working with babies and toddlers, and different kinds of therapies and treatments; it has opened my eyes to the care sector and presented the wider impact they have on our society. Essentially they are the wheels that keep us going! And especially in times like this, where they are on the front line, as well as your supermarket staff, teachers, delivery drivers, and volunteers, I’m definitely more grateful and thankful for them having learned about how hard their roles are sometimes, from personal experience working in retail, and from educational experience learning about them in lessons, as well as completing work experience in a nursery and primary schools and being able to experience that for myself.

As the saying goes, all good things must come to an end, and as much as I’d love to stay at USP, I’m starting my photography course in September in the start of my journey to being a professional photographer in the future with my own business. So if you ever need a party photographer or someone for your wedding or baby shower in a few years, you know where to find me! Coming soon to a screen near you, haha.

Stay safe everyone and good luck with your studies. Stick to it and work hard, and you’ll smash it!

Bye for now,

Amy Louise Raymond