At the time, I started attending my local Deaf club, Mansfield Deaf Club to immerse myself in the deaf community and embrace its culture. I completed my BSL Level 1 and 2 qualifications there between 2014 and 2016 and soon became passionate about the language and deaf community. This changed my career outlook as I found myself enrolled on the BA (hons) interpreting (BSL/English) degree at the University of Wolverhampton. I graduated from this programme with a 2:1 and won the interpreting prize from my cohort in 2019. I finished the programme as a Trainee Sign Language Interpreter (TSLI). 

I then embarked on a new chapter moving down to London in 2019 where I began in-house employment as an Interpreter for Remark Ltd. This role taught me an array of skills that could have only been learnt in the real world of interpreting, outside of the classroom, working in a wide variety of domains. Whilst working here, I completed an additional level 6 interpreting qualification with Bruce and Delfosse Interpreting in order to achieve fully qualified RSLI status, which I attained in March 2021.

Being the academically driven individual that I am, I continued with my studies whilst practising full-time as an Interpreter. I enrolled on to the masters programme, MSc Language Sciences (Sign Language and Deaf Studies), part time over two years at the prestigious University College London (UCL). This degree taught me the complexities of neuroscience and how the brain processes language, specifically the deaf brain and sign language processing. During my time on this course, I deemed it an appropriate time to leave my in-house position and began my freelancing journey whilst also working part time for a remote interpreting agency, Involve Interpreter. I did this for 6 months so I have good experience with remote interpreting before I left and became a fully fledged freelance RSLI. I graduated from the masters degree with a Merit and have continued my research passion within the field of sign language users’ face recognition skills and abilities. More information about my research can be found on my research page.