By Gabriela Güvenel, Foundation Year Graduate and Student Union Coordinator, FSB Sheffield

I didn’t arrive at FSB by following a neat, sensible plan with bullet points and milestones. I arrived here the way many of us arrive, where we’re meant to be: by listening, adjusting, letting go, and occasionally having the rug pulled from under our feet just enough times to learn how to walk differently.

For a long time, I knew one thing about myself with clarity: I wanted to build a holistic coaching and guidance practice. Supporting people, listening deeply, and helping them make sense of their inner worlds always felt natural to me. But life experience taught me something equally important: purpose alone is not enough to keep something alive.

Throughout my life, I have been involved in a couple of businesses. Each one eventually had to be shut down. One fell to the economic recession around 2008. Another couldn’t survive the pandemic. At the time, I internalised these closures as personal failures. Not the most generous interpretation, but a very human one. With time and reflection, I began to see the pattern more clearly. The problem wasn’t vision or passion… it was sustainability.

I knew I wanted to create a company, but I didn’t want it to share the fate of the previous ones. I didn’t want it to survive only until the first serious problem appeared. I wanted it to grow, adapt, and thrive even when challenges inevitably came. So, I made a deliberate decision: before opening my next business, I would learn how to run one properly. Studying Business Management at FSB was my way of protecting the business, and not a step away from my purpose. I wanted to understand not only how to start something meaningful, but how to keep it resilient, sustainable, and alive when things don’t go according to plan.

That decision changed everything.

In March 2025, I began studying Business Management at FSB Sheffield. From the first semester, I immersed myself fully in the course. I was present, engaged, and vocal.

Returning to education as a mature student carried its own quiet weight. There’s a particular vulnerability in walking back into classrooms with a lifetime already lived behind you, successes, mistakes, responsibilities, and the occasional existential crisis neatly packed into your rucksack. But what I found at FSB was not judgement or distance, but relevance. My lived experience didn’t sit awkwardly alongside the curriculum; it enriched it. Learning became about refining, understanding, and finally trusting the knowledge I had been gathering all along.

As I became more involved in campus life and more active in supporting my peers, I realised I wanted to do more than simply participate. I wanted to represent students, contribute meaningfully, and help shape the student experience. That clarity led me to put myself forward for the role of Student Union Coordinator at FSB Sheffield.

I accepted the role with genuine enthusiasm. For the first time since moving to England, my work shifted away from physically demanding, blue-collar roles into a position where I could finally use my mind fully. It was a relief I hadn’t realised I needed. To be able to think, organise, support, and problem-solve without suppressing that part of myself felt like exhaling after holding my breath for years.

What followed exceeded my expectations. My manager made me feel truly seen and consistently acknowledged the value of the work I was doing. Support from superiors and peers created an environment where effort was recognised, not just required. I felt trusted, appreciated, and encouraged to grow. In return, I gave my best. Supporting students, collaborating with departments, contributing to staff initiatives… I genuinely believe I’ve made a positive difference, and that belief is reinforced by the feedback I’ve received. There’s something quietly powerful about knowing your work matters.

Alongside this, my collaboration with the Marketing Department led to another opportunity: becoming a Student Ambassador. It felt like a natural extension of what I was already doing, representing a university I had come to genuinely love. I am proud of the work I do at FSB, and I hope to continue collaborating with the university for a long time. I have big ambitions, including studying for a Master’s degree with FSB in the future, but for now, I’ve just completed my foundation year, and I’m allowing myself to fully appreciate that milestone.

What this journey has shown me is that FSB gets something many institutions don’t: mature students don’t need to be squeezed into a box. They need their lives and experiences to count. At FSB, what you already know is part of how you learn. That makes education feel real and useful, not distant or theoretical. It also means that if your life is busy, messy, or unconventional, you don’t have to leave it at the door to belong or succeed.

I strongly recommend FSB to mature students across England whose educational journeys may have been non-linear or unconventional. FSB is a higher education provider with clear academic standards, strong learning materials and expectations that encourage students to engage fully and develop with confidence.

My path into higher education was not linear, but that is precisely why it worked. Returning to education at FSB felt purposeful rather than performative because the university balances real standards with recognition of the value students bring from their lives. That balance is rare, and it is what makes learning both challenging and deeply rewarding.

If my story has a moral, it’s this: purpose needs structure to survive. Returning to education isn’t about starting over, but about refining what you already know. When lived experience is met with learning, confidence grows. And so does the ability to build something meaningful that can adapt, endure, and last.