"It’s empowering"

After a difficult school life, Andrea Lake went to secretarial college – and had a number of jobs while raising a family.

It was only when she was made redundant from a job she loved that she decided to aim for a place at University.

Now a mature student studying English at Leeds, Andrea is in receipt of a Centenary Alumni Scholarship and a Peter Robinson Scholarship for creative writing. Here she talks about the difference which these two scholarships have made to her time at Leeds.