{"id":1488,"date":"2024-07-22T09:00:11","date_gmt":"2024-07-22T08:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/on-parade\/?p=1488"},"modified":"2024-07-24T14:12:28","modified_gmt":"2024-07-24T13:12:28","slug":"my-university-the-personal-impact-of-scholarship-support","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/on-parade\/2024\/07\/22\/my-university-the-personal-impact-of-scholarship-support\/","title":{"rendered":"My university experience: the personal impact of Gold Scholarship support"},"content":{"rendered":"
Written by Ada Sadowska, Gold Scholar<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/h5>\n

Having just finished my second year of the politics and international relations course at the University, I\u2019ve had plenty of time to settle in as a student and grow a connection to Bath. <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Ada<\/a>I grew up in coastal Kent, living with my younger brother and mum who works as a carer. While I always knew I wanted to attend university, I had <\/span>no idea<\/span><\/i> about what this would look like, or what I would be able to do afterwards. <\/span>Bath is probably the best place I could have ended up \u2013 besides the beautiful city and wonderful enriching university, I was fortunate enough to have ended up on the Gold Scholarship Programme.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Gold Scholarship Programme is a scheme aimed at undergraduate students from disadvantaged backgrounds, offering a very generous bursary in exchange for 50 hours of volunteering and participation in several additional events throughout the academic year. <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

A few weeks after submitting my application <\/span>\u2013<\/span> in my case, this was done while having the flu <\/span>\u2013<\/span> I was selected for it. To be completely honest, I was not <\/span>fully<\/span><\/i> aware of what the scholarship would consist of, besides the financial support it would provide me. <\/span>Nevertheless, the volunteering, which initially looked quite daunting, proved to be flexible and constructive.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In first year, I predominantly helped out with a few small projects, from museum volunteering to silent-disco hosting, while in second year I found myself on a society committee and leading Peer Assisted Learning sessions. Thanks to the financial support, I\u2019ve also been able to take up extra-curricular German classes with the skills centre instead of working.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Perhaps the most useful element of the Gold Scholarship has been the opportunity to learn effective networking \u2013 from skills seminars on the topic, to actual networking including a celebration dinner with donors. The Scholarship Programme also encouraged me to develop my LinkedIn skills <\/span>\u2013<\/span> a platform on which I\u2019ve since begun to thrive.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The networking reception<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As a life-long Shaun the Sheep fan,<\/span> a highlight of this year for me was <\/span>an <\/span>away day with Aardman<\/span> Animations<\/span> studio<\/span>, organised as a part of the Scholarship Program<\/span>me<\/span>. <\/span>B<\/span>esides the fact that it was obviously fun, using Claymation as a teaching medium for creativity<\/span>,<\/span> which can be applied in the workplace<\/span>,<\/span> was honestly enlightening, and boosted my confidence<\/span> to build and appreciate a wider skillset within myself<\/span>.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"My<\/a>
My Peer Group and I making Gromits<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

If it wasn\u2019t for the Gold Scholarship Programme, my understanding of my own future career would differ dramatically. The diverse group of wonderful people I have met through the Scholarship Programme has made it possible for me to consider professional pathways diverging from those I previously associated with my degree. For example, beyond the public sector (which is a typical route for graduates of my course), I\u2019ve started looking at roles within the wider Arts industry, and I <\/span>think <\/span><\/i>I know what consultancy is now. Exposure to people who work across a range of industries for the first time has made it possible for me to visualise a career outside of teaching or academia <\/span>\u2013<\/span> completely redirecting my trajectory and widening the opportunities available to me.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This summer I have also been working as an intern within the University\u2019s Advancement Office where I have learnt an incredible amount about the higher education fundraising sector and, by extension, the work I could potentially carry out once I graduate. I\u2019m also able to seriously consider doing a master's Programme, as I have been able to save explicitly for a master's fund. <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The incredible support network I hav<\/span>e<\/span> gained <\/span><\/span>\u2013<\/span><\/span> both<\/span> from the <\/span>Gold Scholarship T<\/span>eam and<\/span> fellow <\/span>students, a<\/span>s well as <\/span>mentors<\/span> assisting<\/span> the Program<\/span>me \u2013<\/span>\u00a0has bee<\/span>n beyond <\/span>transformative.<\/span> I am more connected to Bath than I ever could have imagined myself being, <\/span>and I cherish the <\/span>wonderful<\/span> community I have gained.<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Written by Ada Sadowska, Gold Scholar Having just finished my second year of the politics and international relations course at the University, I\u2019ve had plenty of time to settle in as a student and grow a connection to Bath. \u00a0...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1926,"featured_media":1498,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[180],"tags":[58,181],"class_list":["post-1488","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features","tag-gold-scholarship","tag-insights-internship"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/on-parade\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/48\/2024\/07\/Parade-profile-header-8.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/on-parade\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1488","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/on-parade\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/on-parade\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/on-parade\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1926"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/on-parade\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1488"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/on-parade\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1488\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/on-parade\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1498"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/on-parade\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1488"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/on-parade\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1488"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/on-parade\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1488"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}