Mariline Igreja-Cooke

BA (Hons) Management of Hospitality

Mariline Igreja-Cooke, aged 33, originally from Mozambique, graduated from Colchester Institute in October 2007, with a 2:1 award in BA (Hons) in Management of Hospitality.

She studied as an international student, whilst living with her mother-in-law and young daughter in Colchester. She was one of the student representatives for the higher education management courses and a regular attendee at programme meetings, making a valuable contribution to the College.

During the course, Mariline’s mother-in-law became seriously ill and, as the sole carer, Mariline gave her attention to her family. She found it very hard to concentrate on her studies and even considered withdrawing from the course.

Nonetheless, with the support of the staff at Colchester Institute, Mariline worked extremely hard, finding time to study late at night and completed her degree on-time.

Mariline said “I enjoyed every single moment of my time at Colchester Institute and would recommend it to anyone. The staff were really great, they were helpful and considerate of my situation.”

Mariline is now continuing her studies in Cambridge, so that she may specialise in HR Management.