The 18 year-old and her family relocated to Chester shortly before the country went into lockdown in 2020. 

Due to the Coronavirus pandemic, she was forced to complete her GCSE studies online, as well as learning English via the internet. 

Now, after taking A Levels at Coleg Cambria’s Deeside Sixth Form Centre in Connah’s Quay, Paulina is about to begin a degree in Law at the University of Manchester.

She has excelled as an EAL (English as an Additional Language) learner and achieved an A* in Psychology, an A in Law and a C in Information and Communications Technology (ICT).

On top of that Paulina, who hails from Burgas, completed the Welsh Baccalaureate (Skills Challenge) certificate with an A. 

“My parents came over here to work but also wanted to provide me with more opportunities,” she said.

“We arrived just before lockdown so I only had a short amount of time in high school before remote learning began, I had to teach myself a lot.

“It was when I arrived at Cambria that I really began to improve my English – mostly through videos online and lots of sleepless nights! – and they had so many of the subjects I was really interested in.”

Paulina added: “Everyone at the college has been so supportive, I could not have done this without them.

“I was struggling but as soon as I came here it really built my confidence and improved my grades.”

“I now hope to go on and work in the law and would like to again thank all of the staff at Deeside for helping me get here – I am so happy.”