Previously, I was a national netball player who represented Singapore in two SEA Games, winning gold and silver; four Asian Netball Championships, winning two golds and one silver; one Netball World Cup and eight Nations Cup events.

My love for the sport has turned into my long-term ambition to teach at a local or international school.

In order to achieve this goal, I chose to pursue a Degree in Sports and Exercise Science with the University of Essex to enhance my skills, knowledge and competency as an educator. As a former full-time national netball player with Netball Singapore from 2010 until I retired in 2020, I also wanted to gain a deeper understanding about other sports.

The schedule at the University of Essex is great for the people who work, and the online learning class experience is good as it helps me save time travelling from work to school. The teaching is carried out step-by-step and a summary video is available for us to review after class.

I believe attaining this Degree will provide me with more options for my future career in sports performance.

I decided to study with the University of Essex (UOE) as it is an established school in the UK and the modules are excellent for the working world, as they are geared toward applied learning. Moreover, UOE provides direct honours for its Sports and Exercise Science Degree programme.

The reason why I chose Sports Science as a major is because it is my dream to be a Sports Science graduate. I have progressed from attaining a Nitec in Fitness Training to Higher Nitec in Sport Management, and from a Diploma in Sports Science and Management holder to a Bachelor’s Degree student.

Having studied sports, health and fitness for five years, I enjoy this industry thoroughly and love gaining as much knowledge as I can, especially in sports performance.

The online learning class experience is straightforward and allows for flexibility during this pandemic. The Kaplan learning management system is simple and easy to use, as I can extract my notes from it and download or print them for offline use.

The UOE timetable is also easy and straight forward. As classes are in the evening, I can have my athletics training sessions in the morning and go to work in the afternoon.

Ultimately, I would like to pursue sports performance as a career and perhaps progress to postgraduate studies to gain more and specialised knowledge. My goal is to work with athletes and the general population, and to improve their health through better nutrition, sleep and exercise.