Celebrating Inspirational Women's Success - Irene Lawrie

Irene was at home looking after a young family, before coming to the College in 2006 as a mature student.

She says that she had little confidence and didn’t think that she would ever progress onto a degree course. Irene started doing Higher Psychology. She enjoyed this so much that she continued her studies at College with a Higher National Certificate and then a degree.

During her degree programme Irene was also a student representative, which she worked at with her usual diligence and dedication. During her honours year she also undertook research in addition to her degree programme, with Dr. Emma Clayes, as part of a UHI funded research project.

She also presented the findings from her own Honours dissertation to a psychology academic conference - it is usually only post graduate students whose work is selected for presentation at these conferences.

Irene graduated with a BA (Hons) Social Sciences, First Class and was also awarded the UHI Student of the Year in 2010.

On completing her degree, Irene joined Perth College as a member of staff and now Lectures in Psychology. In particular, she is delighted to be teaching the Higher Psychology course, which is where it all began for her. Irene combines her role as a Lecturer with being a member of the Bruce Springsteen tribute band “The Rising” and has also been on Eggheads.

A week of celebrations for the Perth & Kinross Women’s Festival 2015 has been organised throughout the area, several of which will be taking place at Perth College UHI. With over twenty events included in the programme, such as practical workshops, physical activities, talks and a film screening, all of which are designed to inspire and celebrate the achievements of women.

Representatives involved in the planning of the Perth and Kinross Women’s Festival 2015 came to Perth College UHI on Wednesday 11th February to launch the brochure of events.