Escape Studios student visits Amersham College

Before Escape Studios, I studied with Buckinghamshire College Group, at Amersham Campus. My first year there, I started a course which unfortunately didn’t call to me. It left me miserable and unknowing of where I was going to go. It was a road with a dead end, with a sign saying “Tesco Applications this way!”, not that there’s anything wrong with working at Tesco's, I just believed I was capable of more.

Two weeks into my second year of college, I decided to leave the course I was on and begin a new one. I found that my college taught CGI and Animation. I thought to myself, “I’ve always enjoyed games, movies and shows and their special effects. Why not? Let’s give it a try.” My first day of starting this course, a student of Escape Studios, now an Escapee came into our lesson and did a presentation on Escape Studios for us. He told us how he studied at my college, how he got to Escape and all the things they’ve given him. From that moment, my road opened up a new path with thousands of choices of where to go.

I’m in my third year of walking down this road, a smile unmovable, since the very beginning. I realised, I’m now in the position the Escapee was in and I can give that opportunity to open up this road for others too. I reached out to my old tutor, Simon, to schedule a day for me to come in and talk to both the first and second years of CGI and Animation students. Once the day was arranged, I asked Alex Page for a favour, in helping me get a presentation prepared and something to hand out to the students. He kindly got me the presentation and had Student Services at reception give me hundreds of Escape Studios badges (I took one for myself!).

The day finally came, while walking up to my old college, I reminisced on the last three years I spent there. It felt great to be back, with the opportunity of making a difference for people. Simon came and welcomed me back and proceeded to walk me to the new classroom for the first years, all 26 of them! After the break, they gathered back in and silently proceeded to watch my presentation. Though I was a bit nervous, going in without knowing how many there’d be, I stuck through and put on a big smile.

After going through the presentation, I took them through some of the things I’ve done and how the first term of Escape Studios is handled. After the presentation, I went around handing out the badges, asking what their first impressions were, with many showing massive enthusiasm for it! For the next hour, first years worked on their projects, showing great potential. After lunch, the second years arrived at my old classroom. There are only eight students in this year. Because I knew of these students when they were in first year and me in second, I was a lot more comfortable beginning talking to them. I began the presentation and finished with handing out the badges, with every student seeming fully set on Escape!

Before leaving, Simon thanked me for coming and doing this for the students. I left knowing I’ve opened that road, which they can choose to walk down as I have. Without Alex and Student Services, and Escape as a whole, I wouldn’t have been able to do this for them. So I thank you a lot for giving me that opportunity.