It was difficult to adjust to the bureaucratic processes. I was doing things I hadn't done for a decade, and that, coupled with the fact that I took a demotion in pay and grade, made my job very unsatisfactory.Also, I experienced a lot of discrimination. Author Nurjahan Khatun BSc (Hons), MSc, MAPM was asked by the Lifelong Learning and Skills directorate to be a key note speaker for Scottish Government Away Day. I was working 16 hours a day and six days a week. I was travelling around the world; it was allvery intense. That kind of lifestyle is not conducive to caring responsibilities. So, I had to make a decision and change the type of job I was doing,” she said. This week I attended Civil Service Live in London where I was a panel member; title of the panel discussion was ‘How a strong evidence and science ecosystem can help us improve public service delivery, be more innovative and do more (even with less).’ I kept going because I did not doubt my ability. I don't say it out of arrogance, but I know the value I bring to organisations. I know how hard I work and the quality I deliver: nobody can take that away from me.

Persistence and resilience only come from having been given the chance to work through difficult problems.Murielle Gonzalez, content strategy manager at Dods Diversity & Inclusion, is an experiencedjournalist and editor.She can be reached on [email protected]. She hopes her contribution supports their change journey and continues to impress on them that their efforts are valuable. She also hopes that the away-day allowed their staff to get to know one another, reflect on their common challenges, and increase motivation and engagement with their purpose.

I appreciate that I can speak Bengali, but the dual identity I felt early on in my life was a bit of a struggle. Growing up in an environment where you have two cultures to balance is difficult for an immigrant. I had to be very eastern at home but demonstrate a western culture at school. Growing up in the 1980s, Nurjahan Khatun is a daughter of immigrants who came to the UK in hopes of being able to provide for their family, locally and abroad. Growing up in this environment, it was the norm for women and girls to remain silent, ask no questions, and do as they are told. Nurjahan was taught to do what pleased her family, and to remain a well-mannered, and well-cultured daughter. She played that role initially but, after a while, she realized it went against everything she felt and believed. We see each attempt that Nurjahan makes to raise her voice...to be heard. Hook of Hope explores these moments and more as we learn about her journey.

She traveled to Edinburgh to speak about key themes from her book, Hook of Hope, where she was able to draw upon her own personal experience of why education is so close to her heart. Having fought determinately for her own education, she considered it an absolute honor to share with the team about how what they do directly impacts young people and how powerful it is to be a part of their journey of self-development and growth. Her talk followed an introduction to the importance of their work from the Scotland's Minister for Education. I have an invisible disability –I'm deaf in one ear – and this has been usedagainst me as though it is detrimental to my performance.