From WBS to M&C Saatchi: Victoria's Journey

With our first cohort of Foundation Year students graduating this summer, we caught up with Victoria Azubuike to reflect on her time at WBS and discuss her next steps.

After having successfully completed my Foundation Year, I went on to study BSc Management. I found that the Foundation Year was greatly beneficial to me and really helped me to get to grips with various elements of university life such as living away from home and living independently. It also gave me a good foundation of knowledge to fully prepare me for my undergraduate studies. During my Foundation Year I had to participate in group work which allowed me to work on my interpersonal and communication skills. Group work has been an important element of my undergraduate degree, and therefore having the experience to work in groups throughout my Foundation Year was really useful.

I particularly enjoyed getting to know my lecturers during my Foundation Year, as well as building a close bond with the other students in my cohort. The problem solving in creativity module that I studied during my Foundation Year really helped me with my direct entry modules and during various internships that I have completed throughout the last four years at companies such as Lloyds of London, CNA Hardy and The MBS Group. The module enabled me to understand communication in a team setting and how to take a more creative approach to solving practical and theoretical problems; this was particularly helpful when I travelled to Los Angeles to work with The Female Quotient, which is an experience I will never forget. Throughout my time at WBS I have received lots of great support from all the staff including module leaders and the Undergraduate Programme team. The Foundation Year Course Director really helped me to not only understand more about university life, but also to understand more about myself and my personal interests.

In addition to my studies, I am the founder of the US Programme, which is a project with the mission to help educate and inspire young females mainly from disadvantaged backgrounds to break boundaries and achieve their goals. As a part of this programme I run a range of events, last year we hosted an event at The Shard in partnership with WBS called She Who Dreams, where the aim was to inspire and encourage young women to dream big. Since setting up the programme, I have been nominated for a range of awards and was named Winner of Biggest Champion of Social Mobility in the 2018 Awards and one of the 2019 Daily Mail Inspirational Women Finalists.

This academic year I collaborated with Warwick Women’s Careers Society to run the first ever Warwick Women’s Summit (the first of its kind in the UK). The summit aimed to bring together ambitious women from a range of careers and give them a full day of workshops, panels, and discussions to raise awareness about issues facing millennial women today. I was part of the Afro Caribbean Society (ACS) for a short while and I won the award of the most supportive team member, which was a great achievement.

I graduate this year, and one of my next steps after completing my degree at WBS is an internship at M&C Saatchi, an international advertising agency where I will joining the PR team. I would encourage all future Foundation Year students to make the most of every opportunity you are given at WBS and fully immerse yourself in university life. I am very proud to be part of the first Foundation Year cohort graduating from WBS. I feel I have really developed as a person, and I am much more confident in my own skin and accepting of who I am.

Our Foundation Year course is designed to prepare you for degree-level study. In a supportive environment, we are here to help you realise your ambitions and unleash your full potential.

To find out more about the Foundation Year course you can contact us via email or call us on +44 (0)24 7615 1111.