Video - Sandra Thorn

Undergrad student testimonial

Video of Sandra Thorn's acceptance speech at the 2011 Student of the year awards. She won the award for 'Derek Pugh Award for Certificate in Management Student of the year'.

Transcript

I just wanted to say a few thank yous really. I’m completely overwhelmed to be given this award, so thank you very much to The Open University for this. I do need to thank my tutors, Lisa Reynolds and Colin Dale for their support throughout my studies. I think having tutors and being able to go to tutorials, as well as have the access to the excellent materials that were part of the course, as well as the online portal forum, where you could share views with your fellow classmates, really enhanced the whole course for me and made it a very enjoyable experience. 

I would like to thank my family. They have put up with me studying now, as you said, for five years, going through the stress every time I have a TMA, and I realise that I am very bad and in a very bad mood in the weeks leading up to that, so they have been very patient. And as Al said I am going to take a bit of a break now; I have promised them that I will stop studying for a short while so that we can get some kind of continuity back in our lives and I won’t be in a very bad mood.

Lastly, I would like to thank my mum, who has just helped me keep all the balls in the air while I’ve been studying. Being able to study with The Open University means that I’ve been able to do my degree while still managing to work and run a family, but I wouldn’t have been able to do that without my mum, so she’s here with me today, so thank you very much. 

As I say, I probably will be back. I’m sure I’m addicted to learning now. I’d like to think that I could stop but I can’t. So I have already been flicking through the prospectus. I’m actually thinking about how I could get somebody to finance that as well, actually. So that’s perhaps a little side project I’ll be looking into come Christmas. So thank you very much indeed.