Education

Education has played a defining role in shaping who I am — not just through books and exams, but through every experience, setback, and success along the way. From early school days to university life and beyond, each stage offered unique lessons that helped me grow both personally and professionally. This section takes you through my academic path, from my first classroom memories to the postgraduate challenges that shaped my current outlook.

Primary Years

I started my educational journey at Saint Claire’s Bicce Mizzi Vassallo Primary school in Pembroke. Although the school has since relocated, when I drive by the English-time building, all the memories come flooding back, reminding me of how I used to play in the big playground with friends. I particularly recall rainy days at school as the playground used to flood slightly, and we would stay inside and watch the rain from inside. I also look back on the plays our teachers organised for us, which I used to like a lot. However, I must admit that I was a challenging child. From a very young age, I was allocated a Learning Support Educator (LSE) due to my short attention span, and I also acted differently from the rest. The LSEs that I had throughout my time at primary were vital in guiding me to become who I am today. My mother was also the school’s secretary; therefore, I felt that I could get away with some things that I did … hehe

Secondary Years

Then I moved to Secondary School. I did my Form 1 at St Claire’s College in Sliema. I still reflect on that square-shaped school, flipping football cards, and playing with slammers. I was a shy and quiet guy and used to be picked on a lot. It did not affect me that much in the beginning, although eventually, as I progressed in secondary, it started to become a bigger issue. Then, starting from Form 2, we were moved to San Gorg Preca Lyceum (LICEO) in Ħamrun. It was a whole new different world, but as with other schools. I accustomed myself.

Like everyone else, you had to pick specific subjects, and I had chosen to take Italian, IT, and Design and Technology over and above the normal subjects that everyone else takes. I tried involving myself more than the education that I received. Especially when prize days came around, you used to find me either backstage, directing people on and off, or in the control room mixing lights or sound. I can vividly recall when our school was also involved with the Junior Eurovision Song Contest, and the Cypriot singer, Sophia Patsalides, performed, and I took care of back staging.

An unforgettable experience. It was a time when I was trying everything to see what worked and what did not work for me. I had also sung ‘Let Her Go’ during one of the prize days together with Christine Haber. Maybe who knows … one day I’ll continue along this line.

Back then, the school also organised a telethon called ‘Maratona Bir-Roti’, a marathon spanning over a weekend with 24/7 cycling around the school track, with all proceeds going to different causes each year. I can still picture when we collected money to equip schools with AED machines, prompted by a case that had happened at school. I was also involved with the backstage handling of the main stage and aiding in the running of the event. This was the time I strongly fell in love with the event scene.

I remember playing football every morning and during the mid-day break, with friends with goal posts made out of our bags, and I don’t even know how many black shoes I ruined because of this.. We were banned from having leather balls since they hurt a lot if strongly shot, and assistant heads used to go round the playground making sure that no one had. At Form 2, I had rebelled against my LSE, which maybe I should not have. I saw it as being different from others, and not as needed anymore, since I was paying more attention. The assistance of an LSE was eventually removed when I was in Form 3.

I had also participated in other experiences, such as a weekend trip to Sicily and also an Erasmus exchange of a week to the Netherlands where I got a first-hand taste of what it feels like to live away from Malta and eventually the student I had lived with, came to live for a week in Malta. The years flew by, and it was my last day of school. I remember visiting the classrooms one last time and getting signatures from teachers and students on my school shirt. I still have it somewhere.

I had done my O-Levels and passed almost all of them except for one. Design & Technology, which was a subject super close to my heart. The teacher hated me and failed me from passing it. Not the one in the photo. I never decided to re-try doing it.

Higher Secondary

I then progressed with my educational journey and went to Giovanni Curmi Higher Secondary School (GCHSS) in Naxxar. I don’t remember how I ended up at higher secondary since there was also the opportunity to go to Junior College. The main argument was that with all of the things happening there, it would end up being a distraction rather than studying, so I went to Naxxar. At Higher secondary, I took up English & IT A-level since I always had a passion for anything technological. As for intermediates, I had taken up Physics, Theatre & Performance, Philosophy, and then the normal Systems of Knowledge.

During break times, I also attended a photography class, which really and truly started my passion for this subject and what I have done with it to this day.

I also got involved in the behind-the-scenes of prize days at school, through mixing of lighting and sound, and photography coverage.

I also liked student activism and tried to run for SRC (the Student Representative Council), which was the body that represented students at the school. I unfortunately did not manage to get elected. I was also involved with PULSE through the small photography I used to do, a student organisation from Junior College, which back then, tried to enter higher secondary, and I also pushed for it to happen. However, students had strongly favoured SRC, and PULSE never really managed to enter. I still supported PULSE in their events and got along well.

Most students spend two years at the school to get their A-Levels and Intermediates; however, at the end of the 1st year, I had failed to pass theatre and performance and therefore ended up as a 1st year repeater. This was a big shock to me. I saw all my friends’ progress to the next year, and I had fallen behind. I did not accept this and had decided to really work hard to try and make up for the lost year. I had decided to drop physics as I could not bear it, and decided to change it to Environmental Studies. I kept theatre and performance as I knew that if I worked harder, I could get there. I was attending extra classes, left, right, and center, and attended private lessons on some subjects.

At the end of the year, I had given an A-Level and 3 Intermediates during the June exam session, and once I saw that I passed, I decided to give my other A-Level and the last intermediate. I remember applying for 3 schools at once. If I did not manage to pass, I would do a 2nd year at Higher Secondary. If I managed to pass but not with enough ECTS’s I would go to MCAST to do a course on Media Studies, which I had attended a brief introduction about, and if I managed to pass with enough ECTS’s I would get into the University. Thankfully, the latter had happened, and I managed to get into university without skipping any years. I was extremely proud of myself for managing to get back the year I had lost. Really and truly, I never really finished my experience at Higher Secondary since I went to university just after finishing my 1st year repeater.

Concurrently with my studies at higher secondary, I had also undertaken an experience that would drastically change the way I think about work and life in general. I had enrolled in the company programme offered by the Junior Achievement Young Enterprise (JAYE). Essentially, the idea of the programme is to nourish the next generation of entrepreneurs. Students applied from different schools and eventually formed teams/ companies to create and sell a product or service. As a number of students from GCHSS, we had formed the company called ‘Opulent’. After lots of discussions, I was given the role of managing director of the whole operation. During the early days of Opulent, we identified that there is a big lack of environmental awareness, especially amongst the younger generation.

Therefore, we created a computer game named ‘Litter Monster’ where anyone who is playing becomes a virtual man and needs to shoot down these garbage can monsters that come to attack them. However, at one point, the person playing will end up without ammo and needs to resort to the game’s virtual shop to buy ammo. For people to buy ammo, they had to answer a basic environmental awareness question, and if they managed to answer correctly, they could continue playing. As the game progressed, the question became harder, and only if you had very good knowledge about the environment would you manage to win the game.

We were quite surprised at how fast people would pick it up. During a trade fair which was specifically organised for us at Tigne Point, a person had played it for an hour non-stop, continuing to answer questions and playing. We also tried selling the computer game to the government to roll out with the initiative of one tablet per child; however, unfortunately, the game was not tablet-friendly. Since the game was developed in-house by one of the team members, the game was only created to be played on PCs. Through the selling efforts that we did, the company managed to break even and create a small profit. We eventually showcased the work that we had done during the final night at Hilton Malta.

University

Bachelor Of Communications (Hons) with European Studies

I still remember the 1st time I had stepped onto the campus and how out of place I felt. There is an element of handholding at Higher Secondary, which is not the case at University (Uni). And to this day, I feel that an experience at Junior College would have been better since it would have prepared me better for this step. That said, I would not change the experiences that I had at Higher for anything. After a lot of thinking about what I should take and what I was eligible for based on my A-Levels and Intermediates, I took up a Bachelor of Communications with European Studies (Honours).

Since I had a passion for photography and media, which started off at GCHSS, I continued along that line and chose communications. We also had to choose a secondary subject to go with communications, and from the selection that was offered, I chose European studies. I felt that it had a good mix of law, history, and practicality to where it could take me, so I chose that. As you might have picked up at this point, I also try my best to go above and beyond my normal education to enrich my experience wherever I am. Since student activism was something that interested me, and at university there are many organisations, I wanted to explore where I could enter.

Each faculty and institute had its own student representative body. The particular one for the Faculty of Media and Knowledge Sciences (MAKS) was the Communications Association (CommA). I am not sure how I got to know about the organisation, either during fresher’s week, or found out a bit by myself, but I remember applying to be part of the organisation and eventually attending their AGM to become their Secretary General in 2017. One of the immediate things that I noticed was the lack of enthusiasm from students about the organisations.

CommA had just come out of dormancy, and I wanted to try and help the organisation come back to life. We organised a few events and tried exploring outside the box, which increased the interest. However, when the 2018 AGM came round, barely anyone had applied for any position, and only the main 3 positions were filled. President, Secretary General, and Financial Officer. As time went by, the financial officer had decided to leave, and shortly after, the president as well,l due to lack of time availability and interest in general, and I was left alone in the organisation just before the summer break of 2018. I had an important decision to make. It was a particular time in Malta when the death of a journalist had rocked the island, and I did not accept the fact that the faculty that took care of teaching media in Malta did not have a student voice. Therefore, I decided to retry and revive the organisation.

I had worked hard during the summer to rebuild a new statute and also work on a new name for the organisation. The CommA name was not really representative of the whole faculty; therefore, I built a name similar to that of the faculty. That is how the Media and Knowledge Sciences Association (MKSA) was born (even though not officially approved through an EGM or AGM). I also explained the organisation’s situation to the Kunsill Student Universitarji (KSU) and asked them for a stand during freshers’ week. Since these are highly sought after, I thought I would not get one at first since there were bigger organisations with much more people; however, KSU believed in the mission I had in mind and provided me with one.

I also asked for help from the faculty, and they promoted the organisation on the screens present in the faculty, guided fresher students to the stand, and also allowed me to present the organisation during their first introductory meeting with the head of the department which was crucial in getting students interested to fill executive roles. I was super happy to note that several people had applied by the end of freshers, and I met every one of them separately. I then eventually called for an EGM, which took place sometime during November, and in December, we had a healthy executive formed by 7 people, of which I was confirmed as President of the organisation.

We eventually went on to complete the transformation that MKSA needed to confirm the name change, a new logo, and also a new statute, aided by the legal aid provided by the Faculty of Laws, which I will forever be grateful for. We also organised several new events, such as a bake sale on campus and a visit to PBS studios. We also organised a joint live-in with Insite.  Another AGM was eventually approached in 2019, once again being confirmed as the association’s president, and with additional new faces to the organisation. This was the ultimate vision that I had. Building a strong backbone for MKSA with people who know how the system works and continue to build on the foundation that was set.

We went on to have a record year of events and brought the financial situation of MKSA further under control. I always believed that for an organisation to continue growing, it requires new people and new faces at all levels. And just like I had delivered this baby of mine, I soon knew that I had to give this baby to someone else. During the AGM of 2020, I had decided not to contest and had given the baton to my successor, who went on to continue leading and further grow the organisation. There were indeed some tough time,s as it’s not always as smooth sailing as one might think, but I am proud of the work that we did to bring back the organisation and see it continue to grow to this day.

During my early days with CommA/ MKSA, the European Students Organisation (ESO), which was the organisation that represented students at the Institute of European Studies (where I had my secondary subject), had a number a PRO roles available which I applied for. However, my application had caused some drama as not the whole executive agreed. The main concern was that since I was already involved with another organisation, I would not have enough time to dedicate to ESO. I understood these concerns and decided to retract my application. Looking back, I believe that this was the right decision.

During my final months with MKSA, I was eyeing new projects that I could take, and an opportunity arose within the UM Futsal, and I eventually became the PRO. This did not exactly go as I had hoped for since some friction arose with other executive members, and I eventually decided to leave the position earlier and became Futsal’s photographer. After fulfilling my photography role, I decided not to run again. You know, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t, it’s just how life is. To be very honest, I do not even remember the exact things why the friction in the first place, but anyway, let’s leave it at that.

Switching gears back to my actual course, the Bachelor of Communications with European Studies was a perfect blend of theoretical and hands-on that continued building on my love for media. The major interesting units were those of photography, video, audio & radio production, magazine, legal aspects of the entertainment industry, and politics of the European Union. These units would go on to build the foundation for the work that I do nowadays. I particularly remember the journey that I had with the team for the magazine were together with several other students, we created B’Cikka, a visual exploration of the purely local; people, places, and cultural events that are typically overlooked.

I also remember creating a TV game show production called ‘IQ ta’ Bankina’ where I managed to gather several people for all types of roles, including camera operators, sound operators, a floor manager, presenting, and the participants of the game show themselves. An A, which I worked hard for. As for European Studies, even though it was not my main subject, I still gave it my best shot and also fell in love with the subject. I particularly remember attending a seminar in Gozo together with the rest of the European Studies students to give presentations on what we had been working on for assignments.

Something that I am super proud of to this day is also my Erasmus+ experience I had in Germany, which I cannot stress enough how important this is, and I suggest it to anyone who would like to give it a shot. It was a difficult application process as the German university that I had applied for, Hochschule Rheinmain, was asking for a portfolio of work, which at my point in time at the University of Malta (UOM), we would have still not developed, and I had nothing to show for. There was also another person who had applied with me for the same course, and when looking at all the complications that were arising, I decided to stop the application process. I did not give up and, together with the Erasmus+ office at UOM, managed to find another course, actually closer to what I wanted to do, for which units would be accepted by UOM.

I remember as if it were yesterday, stepping on that plane into the unknown. Not knowing what it means to live and study abroad. I remember being assigned a student who welcomed me at the airport and guided me to the student accommodation. And from that day onwards, the rest was history. I made a whole new bunch of friends from across the world, tried my best to immerse myself in the culture and language, and also touched media technologies that every UOM media student would have dreamt about. This is where I must criticize UOM to continue to provide students with industry-standard equipment and update itself for modern times. I once again worked with a whole new bunch of people to create both an in-studio and out-of-studio production, which, even though challenging at first, we managed to make work. I also took time to explore more of Europe during the weekends with a company called PM2AM. Exploring places like Paris, Prague, Krakow, Zurich, Berlin, and several others. Even though I felt homesick a few times, I loved every minute of it. It felt like I was a Malteser against the rest of the world. But I’m glad I did it. To this day, I still message the friends I made on Erasmus on a WhatsApp chat we have.

In conjunction with all of this, I involved myself with the famous Students’ Fest. Each year, KSU organizes a production created fully by students. Anything from the crew to the actual cast, irrelevant of what background you came from. I had applied for my first one way back in 201,8 named ‘The non-Committal little mermaid’. I was mostly involved with the crew, taking care of photos and helping in creating props for the actual show. The media team took care of photos for anything from behind-the-scenes while the set is being created, auditions, official shoot for the promo magazine, and official portraits of each person, with all material used on social media to promote the play. The ones I used to particularly shoot were the parties that happened in the run-up to the play. The student’s fest is a whole vibe and culture, and you have to be in it to understand what I truly mean. The first experience was a super success and eventually went ahead to also participate in ‘Oh my Hairspray’ 2019, ‘Min Hi Girls’ 2022, and ‘Alice in Bormla’ 2023, occupying crew and media roles and making lots of memories along the way.

The last year of my Bachelor’s course was weird since COVID-19 was in full force, and we were required to stay at home. Lectures were shifted online, and it just did not feel like the University life that I knew. Most of my thesis and research were also done online. I wanted a title that not a lot of people had written about, while also connecting communications with European Studies. That is when I decided to write about the use of social media during European political campaigning and the differences encountered between an incumbent to a new face. You can read more about my bachelor’s thesis here. I was assigned a Canadian tutor working at UOM who wrongly assessed my work. I had asked for a revision of the work, and I got a better mark. He was eventually removed from the university for an unrelated case. Then, I remember that when we had submitted our thesis, which was on like a random Tuesday, we had done over-zoom drinks.. Our graduation had also shifted by one year forward while practicing social distancing, which felt super weird. I had eventually organised the buscade for our class, which was a super fun experience.

Master of Science in Strategic Management and Digital Marketing

After finishing a bachelor’s, I guess everyone passes through the same phase of whether to keep going or to stop. After discussing with family and friends, I decided to go for a master’s; however, I was undecided about what to go for. The newly launched Master of Communications was tempting since it would be in perfect connection to what I had studied. Since I was already immersed within the local media industry, I felt that it would be more repetition of what I had just learnt and what I already do in my line of work. Therefore, I wanted something different and preferably with a different faculty. That’s when, eventually, with a bit of digging, I learned about the Master of Science in Strategic Management and Digital Marketing.

I had created a portfolio based on past self-employed work, which eventually landed me an interview at the Faculty of Economics, Management and Accountancy (FEMA). Even though the interview had gone well, I was not confident that I would manage to land the course. After some time, I heard that I was accepted. I was also more ecstatic that a friend of mine who did the same previous course as me was also accepted. To be very honest, the experience that I ultimately got was very different from what I envisioned. I had taken the chance of taking the course in 2020, with the hopes that Covid-19 would eventually subside, and hopefully have a normal 2nd year. Unfortunately, that was not the case, and I ended up doing all of the course online.

Two particular units that I fell in love with were the digital marketing channels unit, with a particular focus on the numbers side, and what they tell you about your performance. Secondly, advanced digital marketing strategies were in different teams, and we had to compete against each other and develop digital marketing strategies for our fictitious companies. After finishing all of the units during my 1st year, it was time to turn attention to the master’s thesis. As you may have read earlier, Entrepreneurship is a subject close to my heart, and I knew that I had to do my master’s thesis based on this. After exploring many options provided to us by the faculty, I eventually settled down on how start-ups in Malta undertake Business Development. I had taken a very good snapshot of the difficulties that start-ups were facing and also how they were going about business development even during difficult times such as Covid-19. You can read more about my master’s thesis here. This time round, I had a better graduation than the one previously experienced for my bachelor’s. I also once again took care in organising the buscade. It was surprising that I met some of the students for the 1st time during the buscade itself.

At the very beginning of my master’s, I also eyed two positions. That of being of being the student rep on the FEMA board and also of being also a student rep on the University’s senate. Unfortunately, both runs were unsuccessful. I had gotten 750 votes from students for the senate position, which was quite an achievement.

Concurrently with my master’s studies, I also wanted to continue with my journey of student activism. The student organisation that represents FEMA is the Association of Students of Commercial Studies (ASCS). I had originally applied to be their secretary general; however, more people were interested in the same position, and I did not manage to get enough votes. There were positions that no one had applied for; therefore, that is how I eventually decided to take on the role of international officer. During COVID times, this was not easy at all, as the whole point of the role was to organise trips abroad and aid international students studying at FEMA.

It was a time when, slowly, COVID-19 restrictions around the world started loosening. ASCS generally organises 2 trips. One inside Europe and the other outside. During a farmhouse ice breaker we had organised in Gozo, as an executive, we had agreed that a trip outside of Europe would be too big of a gamble to take. We decided to only focus on an in Europe trip, and after looking at several countries and also at their Covid situations, we eventually agreed on Budapest. A trip hadn’t been organised by the organisation for quite a while; therefore, we knew that we would have a good number of people who would apply.

We pushed hard on our social media and also during fresher’s week, which brought in a lot of interest. We ended up organising one of the biggest trips that ASCS had ever taken abroad. Budapest was a blast and a big success. Although we did have a small hick up at the airport when we were about to check in. Air Malta had informed us that they could not find our booking that we had made, and I swear, I was going to have a heart attack. Eventually, they informed us that they had enough seats to take us, and we paid them there and then. To this day, I still don’t understand how they could have lost such a large booking, as it was showing up normally on the system. Because of this error, since booking last-minute tickets is generally cheaper, the trip became more profitable, and by the end of the term, the trip was the only event that created a profit, which I guess I felt proud of. As the international officer, I also organised a talk to students interested in taking up Erasmus+, which, given my Erasmus experience, I highly recommend to anyone who wants to take it up.

Other Certifications

In terms of formal education, which was mostly concurrent with all of my educational journey, I had gotten the European Computer Driving Licence (ECDL) & also the London English (O-Level).

Future studying prospects

As for future studying prospects, for now, I don’t see that I will be taking on any new courses. However, there are two possible things that I might do in the near future. Firstly, law and being a lawyer are something that interests me, so I do not exclude that in the near future I will explore something along this line. That said, the law course is a lengthy one, and I only imagine taking this line when I am financially comfortable enough to be able to take this course full time. Moreover, the current entry requirements for the course require you to have a Maltese A-Level, which I do not currently possess. Therefore, Maltese is something I would need to do before managing to progress into doing the Bachelor of Laws, for example. Secondly, I would also like to explore the opportunity of taking up a master’s, either in Malta or abroad in either Communications, European studies, or Entrepreneurship.

Last Update 25/06/25