THE first female principal in the history of Blackburn College has set her sights on leading the town's higher education into the 21st century. Sheena Ewing, who takes up the £70,000-a-year on September 1, wants to continue the foundations laid by John Bolton over the past 10 years when he retires in August.

Mrs Ewing, said: "John Bolton has been a tremendous servant to the college over the past ten years and I want to build on the success he has enjoyed during that time.

"I want to continue with the same high quality and expertise and I will be ensuring that Blackburn College continues to be vibrant and economic well into the next century."

The mother-of-two from Preston has been the college's vice-principal (curriculum) for the past six years and now she is looking forward to the challenge of being the first female principal in its 108 year history.

She added: "This is a very exciting challenge for me and as a women it is about time the college had a female principal."

Mrs Ewing is a graduate of Glasgow and Liverpool universities and her previous posts include vice principal and acting principal at Millbrook College in Liverpool.

She enjoys reading and listening to classical music and spending time with her family when away from her job.

She said: "I'm not much of a sportsman but with two sons who are I've learnt to become a very good sports watcher."

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.