Meet the team

Sophie Madison, specialist mentor 

"I joined the student mentoring service team in November 2021. I graduated from Sunderland University in 2021 with a Psychology degree, gaining my first postgraduate job at NEAS. 

"My favourite thing about being a mentor is getting to know each student and helping them to achieve their goals and gain confidence in their own ability. 

"The support I offer to each of my students is tailored towards their specific needs. This ranges from dealing with stress and change, managing workloads, organising time to meet deadlines, helping people to access other support or finding a society to join.

"The aim of mentoring is always to help the student have the best experience they possibly can." 

Philip Nicholson, specialist mentor 

"Much of my career has been spent in the field of teaching and learning, and I was lucky enough to be able to travel to a number of countries to teach English as a foreign language. I also previously worked in a Further Education college in the UK and undertook voluntary work supporting asylum seekers and working with children with disabilities and learning difficulties.

"Five years ago I joined the North East Autism Society and worked for a number of years supporting autistic children, young people and adults in education and day service settings, before making the leap to the Employment Futures department in 2021."