Anna thankful for her time at College as she earns successive promotions since completing her studies
Anna Pawlowska came to Edinburgh College in 2017 with the hope of further developing her English language skills while breaking into a new industry, and has gone on to earn successive promotions, and an honours degree in the process, since graduating from College in 2019.
We recently caught up with Anna to find out how she is enjoying life after her studies, and see if she has any advice for students who may be thinking about coming to College:
How did you enjoy your college experience?
It was absolutely brilliant. It was scary at the beginning as I think taking the first step is always the hardest, especially when English is not your first language – and it’s not mine. The whole experience was absolutely brilliant, I think the big part of why my English is so good now it because I joined the College. I also met a lot of friends that I’m still friends with now, so it was brilliant.
How did you enjoy your course?
I definitely learned more about what the events industry is like overall, as for many people it seems like fun and nothing much, you’re just walking around and organising these great events. And it is in a way, but the whole course just showed me that there’s much more to it than that. It is those basic skills and a lot of the behind the scenes work, such as organising registrations and licenses and stuff like that. So, the course definitely helped me massively with that one.
What have you been doing since you’ve left College?
While I was studying NC Events Coordination, I spoke to one of my lecturers who used to work for Heritage Portfolio, who put me in touch with the organisation and that’s how I started working as a waiter there. I remember walking to the National Museum of Scotland and I just fell in love and knew that that’s what I wanted to do. After a year I progressed to a supervisor, and then after another year I progressed to a managerial role.
The pandemic then happened so I decided to use that time to go to Edinburgh Napier University to finish my studies, where I gained an honours degree in International Festival and Event Management, and after that year at university, I came back to the same company as before in another managerial role. After another year I became got my current role which is Operational Manager.
If you could give one piece of advice to a student starting College, what would it be?
The first thing I’d say is just don’t be scared. It’s always scary to leave your comfort zone. Just do it anyway! Just go and have the experience, there’s a lot of opportunities across the college, not only for events courses, but for all courses. It’s more about the networking, it’s more about seeing if you really like it. I started my studies and initially I wasn’t sure if that’s what I wanted to do, but when doors start to open, I knew it was right for me. My main advice is just to try, it’s never too late - I’m where I am now because I made that first step!