Graduation Tales: Antigone breaks the stigma of care with degree success

Antigone Cooper took a slightly unusual route to her degree, having spent a major part of her teenage years in care.

But, having emerged from the care system and then going on to finish her degree last year, the 23-year-old is now planning on using her experience of overcoming personal challenges to build a career in human resources.

The married mum-of-one, who now lives in Bristol, is originally from the UK but grew up in the USA, returning to the UK in her early teens. It was then, however, that her life took a different path to what she was expecting.

“I grew up in Texas, but the move to the UK was quite turbulent and led to the breakdown of the relationship with my parents,” Antigone said.

When Antigone reached 16 she decided to start working, doing a number of jobs before becoming a carer for people who needed end-of-life and dementia support when she was 18. However, after a few years, she decided that wasn’t the career she wanted to pursue long term and looked at returning to education, eventually starting a psychology degree at the University of South Wales (USW).

And it was an unusual focus that sparked her interest in the subject.

“It sounds morbid, but I chose psychology because I was really interested in people’s mindset when they were dying, the last five to 10 minutes of life,” she said.

“I really was questioning why they were acting the way they did, and why they thought the way they did. I just wanted to kind of understand how people's backgrounds and context affect the last moments of life.”

Antigone’s interest guided her to a 2.1-class degree, which she is collecting at the delayed USW 2021 graduation ceremonies being held this week at the ICC Wales in Newport. Last year she also went through a few other life-changing events, getting married and becoming a mum.

Looking to the future, Antigone is currently studying full-time for a Masters degree in Human Resource Management at USW and is due to finish next year, so may just be attending graduation ceremonies in successive years.

Having now spent almost four years at USW, she has plenty of positive comments for the support she received from the University.

“Although I was a care leaver, being a bit older meant I was used to managing my own life and making sure things were in order,” Antigone said.

“But there was still great support from the Uni. I was given a single person to contact when I was there in case I needed anything. They really do make sure you are looked after and feel secure - if anything, I felt like I had more opportunity than other people, just because I was so supported.”

And going to University is something that Antigone says she would recommend ‘a million per cent’.

“If you don't go to university you can only get so far and, especially as a care leaver, you're just a statistic most of the time,” she said.

“There can be such a stigma that comes with being a care leaver. So yeah, it's nice to go against the grain.”

USW offers extra support to care leavers during their study, including a bursary of up to £1000, a named contact, and access to 365-day accommodation. Full details are available at Care Leaver Support | University of South Wales