A student who balanced caring for her young son with a part-time job and university studies has graduated with a first-class degree in business management.
Ava Sim commuted from her home in Shetland for tutorials and exams at Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen, around 260 miles away. She took baby Leo with her, leaving class to breastfeed him.
Sim, 23, whose second baby is due within days, told the Times: “I’m really pleased. I was determined to get that first-class degree. I’ve always enjoyed all aspects of university and when I fell pregnant with Leo I decided that it wasn’t going to stop me. I made the first trip with Leo when he was five weeks old.”
Sim first studied in Aberdeen, before moving back to Shetland to continue her degree through distance learning. She wrote a 13,000-word dissertation on workforce sickness absence rates while working for the local authority.
Sim said the experience had been “challenging but extremely rewarding”. “In my final year, I have been balancing my studies with working part-time, caring for my toddler, managing the household, maintaining extra-curricular activities and being pregnant with my second child.”
She also found time to enjoy sports, competing for the university’s netball first team.
Sim will soon take maternity leave with her second child, but said that afterwards, she hopes to find a new challenge. “I would like to pursue a career in either business development/consultancy or human resource management,” she said.
“Up until now I have mainly worked for the local authority, so I’m looking for a new challenge. I’m also considering doing a master’s degree in either HRM or leadership and management. I am finding it difficult to decide at the moment as I have enjoyed all of the modules I have studied throughout the course.”
