Life after St Gabriel's
First hand experiences from past St Gabriel’s students. If you would like to share your story with us, please click here
First hand experiences from past St Gabriel’s students. If you would like to share your story with us, please click here
Business Development Manager
View Profile
New Product Development Manager
View Profile
Creative Production Manager
View Profile
Psychodynamic Counsellor
View Profile
Social Impact Program Leader
View Profile
Consulting Structural Engineer
View Profile
Lawyer
View Profile
Retired MBE
View Profile
Dentist
View Profile
Kiran is a Business Development Manager at Amazon. She works within their shipping team where they support sellers getting their products to end customers quickly. She manages their Tech Partnerships within this team, which means getting involved in building new services and features that improve the experience for sellers using Amazon logistics. Prior to this, Kiran spent five years at GSK (Glaxosmithkline), a healthcare company, focusing on growing brands such as Aquafresh across digital channels (ie, Facebook,Tesco.com, Amazon etc).
As a lover of all things ‘food’, when Susannah found out she could study it at university she was sold. Susannah was accepted at The University of Leeds to study Food Science & Nutrition for three years with the addition of a placement year in industry. Her year in industry was at Dr Oetker, developing pizzas. It threw her into working life and confirmed that this was the field she wanted to go into.
Her current role as New Product Development Manager involves full management of bringing a new product to market from concept all the way to factory launch.
Georgia works for Harvey Nichols as a Creative Production Manager. Her role consists of managing all creative workflow in the business including briefing, scheduling, capacity management and delivery of all creative assets in the business. She also manages the shoot production team.
In previous roles, Georgia was a producer organising photo/video shoots for Selfridges,Topshop, John Lewis and The White Company.
After leaving St. Gabriel’s School in 2006, Alexandra went to The Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts for three years and was awarded a Level Six National Diploma from Trinity College London in Professional Musical Theatre.
She worked as an actress in London theatre scene for a few years and embarked on relocating to Los Angeles working in commercials, pilots, short films and music videos. After three years she returned to London and stepped away from the acting industry and was inspired to enrol onto a Certificate course in Psychodynamic counselling at Manor House School for Psychotherapy and Counselling Training Programme. She enjoyed it so much that it led her to continue on to achieve a Diploma in Psychodynamic Counselling & Therapy in the community.
After graduating she set up her Private Practice in 2019 in which she offers counselling online and over the phone and works as a Counsellor and Assessor for the charity Waterloo Community Counselling. She has recently begun working in a remote locum position as a Psychodynamic Assessor for the NHS in South London and Maudsley Foundation Trust.
Charlotte works with teams around the world to drive Always’ mission to help stop the drop in confidence that so many girls experience at puberty. This is done with program aimed to tackle societal barriers to girls’ confidence, provide puberty and confidence education to children, parents and teachers, and enable access to period products.She has led award-winning campaigns including the#LikeAGirl Campaign, the global Always #EndPeriodPoverty program and the Always School Education Program, which reaches over 18million people each year. Prior to working for Always & Whisper, Charlotte worked for a small NGO in El Salvador on community-based projects.
On completing my A levels at St Gabriel’s, I went on to study for a master's degree in Civil Engineering at Southampton University.
St Gabriel’s gave me the confidence and knowledge to enter an industry dominated by the male population, in which I feel I have thrived. I am now a consulting structural engineer at Scott White and Hookins, where I work on the engineering design of complex structures and buildings. St Gabriel’s gave me the confidence to pursue this career, but the learning environment and the support I received from my teachers would have enabled me to take any direction I chose.
During my 14 years at the school, I also loved playing in all the sports teams and have continued to play hockey after graduation. These team games provided me with many invaluable soft skills, which have proved so important in my adult professional working life - effective communication, respect for others and the ability to work both independently and as part of a team.
Before going up to Newnham College, Cambridge, I was at St Gabriel’s for 14 very happy years. I graduated in 2012 and am now pursuing a career in law, following a training contract with Linklaters in the City.
It is the brilliant teachers at St Gabriel’s that I really remember – always prepared to go the extra mile. But it wasn’t all just work, I played in the netball, hockey and rounders teams, took part in the dance shows for many years and played the clarinet.
This set me up to represent Newnham College in the rowing and hockey teams, as well as becoming a charity volunteer, all of which helped to kick start my career. I even started to learn Mandarin at St Gabriel’s, keeping it up for four years. One day that might be very useful!
I will always be grateful to St Gabriel’s for providing my twin sister, Brigid, and I with the best possible foundation for life. After completing Sixth Form, I stayed on to teach for a year, which deepened my understanding of the real commitment of the staff to encourage each pupil to give of her best. Following teacher training college and my election as senior student, I taught in Kent, where I also skippered a Sea Ranger Crew, and then Malawi.
It was there I married Donald Arden, who had recently arrived as the new bishop and later became Archbishop of Central Africa. For 17 years I looked after the Diocesan Building Department, drawing plans for hospitals, schools and other projects and supervising building contractors.
Returning to England in 1981, I worked for 16 years with the London Diocesan Board and its 152 schools, initially working with architects but then getting to grips with new education acts and helping head teachers and governors understand what they were being asked to do. I also served on several government committees. I was made an MBE for this work.
Whether repairing the facial injuries of the inebriated in A&E at 4.00am or dealing with a small child with a dental abscess, I am grateful to St Gabriel’s for giving me the confidence to cope with most things.
Of course, St Gabriel’s helped me achieve the top grades needed to study dentistry but there was so much more to my education there. The opportunities were excellent – the Millennium Volunteers scheme (working with disabled children) was an invaluable experience. Being Head Girl gave me the chance to liaise between staff and pupils and honed my organisational skills. So useful thereafter!
St Gabriel’s gave me a great education, wonderful friends and so many happy memories.