Gillian Ashton, IET Jubilee Scholarship winner
Gillian's making the most of the resources and contacts the IET offers...
A first year engineering student at Durham University, Gillian Ashton wanted to study engineering because she wanted to do something with a more practical basis and applied physics and maths were her best two subjects.
“I have always had an interest in how things work and thought engineering would be the course I would most enjoy studying and lead to a job a would later enjoy,” she explains.
She heard about IET Scholarships through a friend, and having gone on the IET website and read more about them, she applied for the IET Jubilee Scholarship.
“I thought having the scholarship would give me a little bit more money to do a few different things at uni, join a few more clubs along with helping me not to build up quite such a big debt at the end of my course,” she says - and correctly.
Alongside the fact that scholarship holders who satisfactorily complete their course of study may use the title 'IET Scholar', the IET Jubilee Scholarship is worth £1000 oer annum. This has allowed Gillian to already do more things without worrying about costs, as well as helping pay off her student loan.
And active she is! Gillian just completed her Gold Duke of Edinburgh last year, and contributed to many of her college sports teams over the years. Since starting university in Durham she has started yet another new sport; rugby, as she thought it would be interesting to do something different. “I am also very keen skier and have joined the ski club here,” she adds.
Gillian’s membership to the IET began when she was awarded her scholarship, and although this means she’s still quite new to the organisation, she has already seen some benefits.
“Having only been a member less than a year I have not been able to make full use of being a member of the IET, but so far I have found that it provides more extra resources and contacts,” she explains. “For example when attending the scholarship awards, I was talking to someone about summer placements and have applied for a summer placement with the company he works for.
“As for taking advantage of the different events and publications etc, so far I have only really taken much use of the main magazine. I find it gives a more realistic insight to the developments in engineering than I have got from my course, where it is mainly just equations so far. In a nutshell, although I havent been a member for very long yet, I have already found that membership to the IET can open many doors and therefore would recommend it to others,” Gillian concludes.
OTHER INTERNET RESOURCES:
From the IET