Abigail Mosazgi doesn’t follow the herd. She knew who she was and what she wanted at 17 and decided to take a different path to her peers.
“I went to college for a Level 3 in Business and Sales: Marketing, Enterprise & Events,” she explains. She did year 12 but then left to go to college because she knew exactly what she wanted.
“People thought that was a wrong move, they thought that A levels were for me. But studying psychology, business and sociology left me feeling really trapped.”
It set her back a year, and as all of her friends went onto university she stuck to her guns, stayed in college and considered her next steps carefully. But it wasn’t just her peers and teachers whose expectations she was willing to defy.
“My Eritrean family were huge on education. Growing up there, not having the chance to pursue university and coming here as immigrants, they couldn’t understand why I wouldn’t go to uni when I could, they didn’t get it, it was a conventional success marker.”
But convention wasn’t where Abigail saw success. Instead, she completed her college courses and began looking for an apprenticeship.
“I was applying for jobs for six months and there were no apprenticeships, but then I got a call from the apprenticeship provider and got to interview for Bountiful Cow and loved it straight away.”
Despite a trailing maths grade, she was determined to make it. She took her maths test again, and to her surprise, slotted straight into the Insights team, where data and numbers are part of her every day.
Perseverance was no foreign concept to Abigail, “I had always admired and strived to persevere more than anything, growing up in East London, then moving to Harrow Road and finally to Dartford,” she explains.
“I had gone from such a diverse surrounding to a predominantly white town, so I was used to dealing with adversity. We moved a lot when I was a kid, schools, areas, home. No one spoke how I spoke, lived like I did, in Dartford.”
The change was immense and formative.
“Moving to Dartford people didn’t get how I was, how I lived and I now think being in insights is helping me understand why people are the way they are, and the different social grades, other demographics and brand affiliations that impact everything,” she shares.
“I have always been quite an inquisitive person.”
Curiosity was second nature growing up in a diverse, busy home.
“My parents were child soldiers in Eritrea. High school students are sent to Sawa for their final academic year combined with compulsory military training, so it was mandatory national service, it was during the fight for independence. So shortly after, they got married and came here as immigrants.”
“Now they are foster carers, so I grew up around so many different types of people, ethnicities and needs, taking people out of horrible situations and challenging life experiences.”
“Those kids, they were neglected, abandoned, they don’t feel worthy of anything, being there to encourage and support them is a privilege. I want to show them that I have learned from them and show them they can achieve anything.”
Her experiences of different people and cultures as well as her faith have shaped who she is today.
“It was never just an Eritrean home, my foster brother was Jamaican, he came to live with us and 5 years later he was a totally different man. He didn’t finish school, but he got a job and he followed opportunity, now he lives alone and is doing really well. My family goes beyond biological and is a home that encourages running towards change.”
Now a Senior Insights Executive taking on a BSc Hons Digital Marketing degree funded by Bountiful Cow.
“What I love most about BC is the freedom and trust you’re given to be yourself, think differently and take ownership of the things you’re passionate about. I’ve been able to carve out a space in social listening and cultural insights, becoming the go-to person for trend-focused projects, which has been incredibly rewarding.”
Abigail is following her own path, and showing everyone she meets that they can do the same.
