Love of sport leads to first-class degree
A sporty student is donning her trainers and heading out into the world of work after graduating with a first-class degree from the University of Central Lancashire (UCLan).
Emma Hargreaves, from Leyland, has collected her BSc (Hons) Sports Coaching degree at UCLan after spending two years as a partnership student at Runshaw College and completed her top-up year in Preston.
The 21-year-old has also been awarded the SO8 Sportswear Award for Academic Excellence on a Programme within the Division of Sports Coaching and Development for getting Firsts across the board in all of her modules. This makes her the top scorer across the entire cohort of sports coaching third year students.
Emma, who has had a passion for sport since attending Balshaw’s Church of England High School in Leyland, said: “Being awarded a First-class degree has come as such a shock to me. I remember being in high school struggling with the academic lessons and all I wanted to do was be out on a netball court.
“Taking the next step and completing a degree in something I’m passionate about has made my learning a lot easier because it’s something I’m interested in. I’ve always known that sport was what I wanted a career in and now my graduation has arrived it’s finally starting to feel real.”
"Being awarded a First-class degree has come as such a shock to me. I remember being in high school struggling with the academic lessons and all I wanted to do was be out on a netball court."
The final year of Emma’s degree didn’t come without its challenges. Juggling working part time as well as completing 120 hours of placement at her high school and volunteering as an athletics coach at Preston Harriers, no one would blame Emma for wanting to take some time off.
Commenting on her busy schedule, Emma added: “I’ve had to work really hard and put in a lot of extra revision time to get here. Getting that balance right has been quite difficult as I had so much going on in the week with my studies and working at weekend as well but I’m really proud of what I’ve achieved and how far I have come.”
But the work doesn’t stop there as the sport fanatic is already looking ahead to September, where she will be working in partnership with Preston Teaching School Alliance, studying for a PGCE teaching qualification at the University of Cumbria.
Delivering sport initiatives to local secondary schools whilst combining her work and studies to become a qualified physical education high school teacher, Emma is looking forward to getting started on the next chapter of her life.
Emma was one of more than 3,500 students who graduated surrounded by family and friends at Preston’s Guild Hall.
