Alumna Inspires Students

Showing our students that there doesn't have to be just one fixed career path is sometimes easier said than done, but with the help of one of our past students, this concept was brought to life in a thoroughly engaging way.

Eve left Charters in 1997 and spoke to Year 13 students during Period 1 about her journey from Charters Sixth Form to her current role as Transformation Director of The British Red Cross. Eve explained that despite being offered a place at Durham University to study Geography, her results did not go the way that they were predicted and she ended up at The University of Nottingham, studying a joint honours degree in Geography and Russian. Eve really enjoyed her time at Nottingham and was keen to stress that results day shouldn't define you.

After completing her degree Eve worked for a year as the Vice President in the Students Union, before moving to London to begin a job as the co-ordinator in the Corporate Partnerships team at Action for Children. Here she cycled from London to Paris with a corporate group and trekked in the mountains in Mexico before deciding that it was time for a change and moved to France for two years to run a ski chalet.

Students studying GCSE and A Level French welcomed Eve to their classes later in the day where she continued to explain her career journey as Head of Fundraising at Breast Cancer Haven and Director of all Fundraising at Macmillan, where she climbed Mount Kilimanjaro with a group of corporate supporters.

It was a great insight for the GCSE and A Level students to hear about Eve's experience of studying a Modern Foreign Language at GCSE and A Level, and how the two syllabuses differ. Eve told the students that the A Level course allows you to study the language in more depth and discover a range of topics linked to subject, including the history of the countries, their literature, sociology, geography, and even the philosophy surrounding certain aspects of the citizens' culture. Taking a language as part of her degree gave Eve the opportunity to live in Russia for a year, which allowed her to immerse herself in the language. The skills she learnt as she began living away from home at university and then travelling to Russia as part of her degree helped her build resilience and confidence, which she believes are skills which she has benefitted from and made use of in her career.

Eve summed up her talks with each group by highlighting four important lessons she has learnt since leaving Charters School. They are:

• To do something you love
• If you start to find it difficult to get out of bed, then it's probably time for a change
• To create a good work/life balance
• And to work hard and take advantage of the opportunities that come along.

We would like to thank Eve for speaking to our students and for sharing her remarkable career journey at the start of this year's National Careers Week.

#NationalCareersWeek2023