Mature student Giselle is Keele’s Student of the Year 2025
More than 70 years after her grandparents met at Keele, mature student Giselle Pearson will be following in their footsteps this week as she graduates from the University. As well as receiving a first-class honours degree in Computer Science and Mathematics, 28-year-old Giselle will also officially receive the University’s highest accolade - our Student of the Year award.
The road to graduation has been a long one for Giselle after a ‘massive mental breakdown’ in her mid-teens - combined with severe depression and an eating disorder - meant that her initial career dream of becoming a doctor was shattered. Following tests and cognitive behavioural therapy to try and rebuild her life, Giselle was diagnosed with autism, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), anankastic personality disorder, also known as obsessive-compulsive personality disorder (OCPD), dyspraxia and Irlen Syndrome, a perceptual processing disorder that affects how the brain interprets visual information.
After trying a few different jobs before the Coronavirus pandemic hit in 2020, Giselle began to think about progressing her career. She said, “I felt bored and started thinking about what to do next, and I thought to myself university – why not? I started to look at different places, and as my grandparents studied and met at Keele in the 1950s as part of the very first cohort, and one of my cousins studied at Keele and went on to work at the University, it has a big history in our family. I went to look around the campus and really fell in love with the place.
“It’s one of the prettiest universities around and I loved the fact it was a campus, rather than being spread out over several sites. I lived in Holly Cross in my first year with seven other students and we all got on so well. It was a bit strange at first being older than the other students, but I think being a mature student helped me because I knew what I was there for and what I wanted to do. I had the best of both worlds in that I was still young enough to fit in, but I had complete certainty that the degree I’d chosen was exactly what I wanted to do.”
After completing a Foundation Year which she ‘absolutely loved’, Giselle began her degree with support from teams across the University. She said: “My academic mentor, Paul Truman, has been fantastic during my time at Keele. Any time I had a question he sat down with me and would talk to me for hours about it if I wanted to. One of the lecturers in my first year, Peter Wootton, went through all the notes for the course and redesigned them in fonts that I could read better, and the Computer Science lecturers were also amazing, including Ed de Quincey, who always had time for me and helped with any questions I had. Nothing was ever too much for them and I’m very grateful.
“To help with the disabilities I have, I spoke to Keele’s Disability Support and Inclusion team, and the support they offered made such a difference to my time at university. I had an autism mentor, a dyslexia tutor, help with taking notes, more time to complete exams, and support with accommodation. I couldn’t have asked for more.”
Alongside her studies, Giselle also founded the University’s first Aerial Dance Society after attending her first class in 2019, which she says, ‘truly changed [her] life’. “When I started going to aerial dance I was really depressed, and my eating disorder was probably the worst it had been, but I went from being miserable all the time with nothing to enjoy, to enjoying this one thing, and it became my obsession.
“Aerial dance has brought me so much joy and helped change my mind on how I feel about my body. When I got to Keele and realised there wasn’t a society for aerial dance, I knew I had to set one up. It’s been incredible to see how the society has grown and the positive impact it has had on people’s lives, and I am sure it will continue for years to come.”
The Aerial Dance society now has more than 100 members, and Giselle has won national and international aerial dance awards, including first place in Advanced Silks at the International Pole and Aerial Tournament (IPAAT) in 2023, first place in Advanced Hoop, Doubles Hoop and Overall Aerial Champion at IPAAT 2024, and first place in both Instructors Silks and Instructors Hoop at the Birmingham regional of the UK Aerial Performance Championship (UKAPC) 2024. She has also become a professional instructor at Pure-Studios in Hereford. In recognition of her dedication to the society, Giselle has also won many awards from the Students’ Union, including Committee Member of the Year, President of the Year, the Society Legacy Award and Swan Master – the highest award the SU can grant to a student for their contribution to the Keele community.
Giselle’s dedication to her studies, extra-curricular activities, and her peers, as well as her resilience and perseverance, saw her named the 2025 Student of the Year. She said, “When I found out I’d won Student of the Year, I cried a lot of happy tears. Graduating will be a very emotional experience, and so special to do in front of my family. They know how dark a place I was in when I was younger and to be able to share my success with them now means a lot to me.”
In September, Giselle will be starting a PhD at Keele studying dyslexia in computer interaction design. She also hopes to set up her own aerial dance studio in the future. Giselle said, “In my PhD, I’ll be looking at how we can improve interaction design for dyslexics, especially with being severely dyslexic myself. As the world is becoming more digitally focused, improving the way we present text and design everything, from web pages to computer games, will be hugely beneficial to dyslexics.”
