Success Doesn’t Come Without Setbacks
By Erin Cruickshank, Enterprising Mind of the Year Winner 2025
When I first set out on my Working Integrated Year Abroad, I had one goal: to make language learning more accessible for young people from state-educated backgrounds in Scotland—something I wish I’d had more of growing up. What I didn’t expect was just how many bumps, doubts, and “what-am-I-doing?” moments would come before anything even felt remotely like a success.
In fact, the Youth Application of Language Project — which now has national outreach and two awards to its name — was initially born out of many failures.
In the early stages, I reached out to schools with the hope of sharing French resources and virtual connections. However, my emails often went unanswered. I had big dreams for the change that my project could make, but I began to second-guess the impact I could have. There were weeks when I wondered if the project had legs at all. It felt like I was trying to make a dent in a system much bigger than myself.
But the beauty of failure is that it forces you to refine. To reflect. To try again—but better. Making myself known to the schools that I had begun to work with and ensuring clear and consistent contact, I began to build a relation with them. I listened closely to the students I was working with, ensuring my resources were aimed at what they wanted to learn, and I kept my content simple yet effective. I followed up with schools persistently but with purpose. Slowly, things began to shift.
What began as a passion project with just five schools is continuing to evolve into a national initiative. Weekly French resources became anticipated by teachers. Speaking to a class turned into speaking to over 3,000 pupils across Scotland through E-Sgoil’s National Assemblies and I have since been invited to speak on panels alongside various language professionals. I have been able to produce a pen-pal scheme (which is continuing to grow) between Scotland and France which has put language into daily life and shown young people the exciting side of communication. And, on top of this, the five schools I have been working with, and I, have received the Scottish Language Employability Award — a reminder that impact takes time and resilience.
And then came the most recent success: being named Enterprising Mind of the Year 2025 by the University of St Andrews. Attending the ceremony virtually from France, where I’ve been based this year, only reinforced the values of accessibility, innovation, and adaptability that underpin my project.
But here’s the thing—none of this would have happened without failure.
The unreturned emails. The messy drafts. The awkward Zoom calls. The moments I wanted to give up on the whole thing and move on. At times, it felt like I was playing dress-up in the professional world, trying to prove I wasn’t out of my depth. However, every challenge taught me something about leadership, about communication, about education—and about myself.
Growing up, a teacher once told me that a failure is simply a “first attempt in learning” and I do believe that she was right.
So, if you’re sitting with an idea, unsure if it’ll work, doubting if you’re “qualified” or “ready,” I promise you—try anyway. You have nothing to lose from giving something a go.