Hannah Cullen

"To summarise my journey, I didn’t do amazingly in my A Levels. I started a foundation degree in law at Sunderland in 2013 whilst working and raising my one year old as a single mum. I was raised in a low socio-economic area, and I'm the first generation in my family to attend university. When I met my now husband and had my daughter, I took a break from education and focused on working. When I decided to go back to education, Sunderland was a no-brainer due to the support I'd received previously. I enrolled onto the second year of the LLB (Hons) Law.

However, the pandemic hit in 2020, and everything that could've possibly went wrong did. Despite the odds, as a working mum of two battling a diagnosis of fibromyalgia, I completed my LLB, graduating with First Class Honours. I've also just finished my LLM Legal Practice degree with a distinction, and I'm currently a paralegal in a fantastic firm, about to start my training contract. My aim is to qualify as a commercial property solicitor.

During my time at university, I was president of the Student Law Society. I helped raise money for LawWorks and we were granted an award at the House of Commons. I was marketing champion in the Law Clinic one year and then wellbeing and fundraising champion the next. We won academic society of the year from the SU while I was president. I secured a training contract with an amazing firm and I can't credit the University and amazing staff enough for aiding me on my journey and getting me where I need to be in my career. The Disability Support team were incredible too as they made a difficult journey a lot smoother.

The best thing about my course was the community and being surrounded by a group of like-minded people. Also, the experienced and knowledgeable lecturers made the course really enjoyable as I have a keen interest in law. My experience in the Law Clinic gave me valuable skills that have helped me in my working life, such as client engagement, drafting, general day-to-day legal practice, and skills like networking and public speaking.

My advice to any students looking to study at Sunderland would be don't hesitate or put it off. Take advantage of all the extracurricular activities that the University has to offer. If I could sum up my time at Sunderland in one word it would be memorable. I'll never forget the time I spent here and although I was always looking forward to exams being over, now that they're done, I'll miss it."