A mother of two has been presented the prestigious ‘Tim Curtis and Partnership Award’ by UCLan.

Rebecca Harris was presented the award after being nominated by her tutors at Runshaw College, Leyland.

After moving up from Cambridgeshire, Rebecca looked after her family while doing a Psychology degree to pursue her career as a clinical child psychologist.

Rebecca said: “When I did my A levels after having my eldest son, I always wanted to pursue studying Psychology but working to pay bills and job training seemed to get in the way. I came to a point where I thought if I don’t do it now I never will.

“I wasn’t satisfied in my job and wanted to pursue options for a career in Psychology that I really wanted to do.”
Her husband and two children; Thomas, two, and Daniel, 15, have been very supportive and understanding towards Rebecca through her busy first year at UCLan.

She said: “I was always going to have a full ironing pile, washing building up and couldn’t always spend time with the kids; but once I got my head around the fact I couldn’t do everything and stopped trying to be superwoman things got a bit easier.”

Rebecca has had to re-schedule her whole routine and now feels more organised towards her education and family needs.

The mother from Skemersdale received a well-deserved prize of £200 and said she plans to spend the money on treating the family to some days out.

Rebecca Harris is now in to her second year of her degree and said: “The tutors at Runshaw were very helpful and the support they gave me was fantastic. They really helped me progress in a subject that’s always fascinated me.”

The Tim Curtis & Partnership Awards are the University of Central Lancashire’s tribute to Tim Curtis and his work as a pioneer of cross-sector partnership and collaboration.

Curtis, the former Deputy Director of the University, had a very instrumental part in establishing UCLan’s partnership college network. The influential ceremony is now in its 22nd year and is still very popular.