[MUSIC]
>> REBECCA MUNRO: That's the hill that I walked up and down every day to get to primary school.
Dundee always feels like home to me.
I lived, not in the city centre or not in the, sort of, west end of Dundee.
You know, the really kind of fun cultural part.
I lived in, sort of, what we'd call 'schemes', where there was a lot of poverty.
Dundee was in a lot of, sort of, hardship 20 years ago, and it's kind of just turned a corner.
It has just evolved massively into a sort of cultural hub.
I suppose, when I watch things evolve, I always want to involve myself.
Growing up in poverty, I think, what we call it in Scotland, we call it SIMD [Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation].
You went to a low attainment school or you're part of a postcode which experiences extreme poverty.
Like, that was my life.
Being in care, being moved away, being split up from my siblings.
Even through high school, I was battling with what was going on at home, for example, whilst trying to put a face on.
I was just not that great a kid in one of the classes, and the teacher said something to me like, "You know you'll always be the person that you are!"
Just looking down the end of his nose at me.
And I looked at myself and I kind of thought, "Is this the sort of person that I am? Is this how I come across? This is not who I want to be."
I was very aware from a very young age, I wanted to stay in education and that was so different to what my siblings wanted, and also so different to what my parents saw for me.
And so I always, kind of, clung to that.
But in high school, I didn't get the grades that I needed, and so I took a few years out.
I worked full time.
I became independent.
The whole time that I was, you know, working away, I always knew that I wanted to go back into education.
When I was in high school, my understanding of St Andrews was for those that were academically gifted, for those straight-A students, for those students who always get 100 percent.
And so my first impression of St Andrews was that it was only over the bridge in Fife but it was so unobtainable.
So that, sort of, impression changed massively when I was at college because St Andrews' Admissions team came up to my college class.
They kind of broke down that sort of prejudice and stigma.
It, yeah, it suddenly felt achievable.
And that was a, sort of, turning point for me at college.
I actually remember waking up, looking at my phone at maybe like quarter past eight in the morning and I got the grades through.
I'd met my condition, I was going to St Andrews.
This, sort of, dream – and for so long – was suddenly real.
And it was happening to me, and I just feel like these things shouldn't happen to people like me, I suppose.
I cried so much that day.
>> INTERVIEWER: What role did the scholarship play?
>> REBECCA: How long have you got?
What that meant instantly was that I felt so much better about the prospect of coming to St Andrews and being a student who can really integrate, because I didn't need to have a job with, you know, 25 [or] 30 hours, you know, on top of my undergraduate degree.
It just instantly gave me that, sort of, financial safety net.
I was an independent student.
I had nobody to rely on.
I came to university and I didn't have a laptop.
What do you need a laptop for?
Because I was a Geography student, it required a lot of field work.
I didn't have hiking boots.
I didn't have a rain jacket, you know.
I didn't have a bag.
All these things that all the other students were able to turn up with, like.
I just didn't have that.
The scholarship was just able to make me, I say "dream big", but I was dreaming big.
When you come to St Andrews, there's so many opportunities for students that, they're not handed to you on your lap, but they're there and they're up for the grabbing.
I became a Student Ambassador, involved myself with the Access and Widening Participation team and engaged with high school pupils local to Fife that were, I suppose, have the same sort of background that I did.
And that was when I really started thinking about my career and especially – continuing my academic journey in some way – that would make a difference in life, is where I want to go.
Taking into consideration the scholarship, I was able to go and live in London for a week and shadow this barrister.
Which was unreal.
That added to the, sort of, transformation that I had at St Andrews.
I was just having the time of my life, I suppose.
How I want to see myself is a, sort of, good, well-rounded person who's lived this life and I'm here in this moment with all of that life with me, applying for all these amazing opportunities, coming to St Andrews.
I would love for the donors to realise just how much their donation has impacted my life and transformed my life.
Although this person is someone that we never cross paths, they play such a huge part of my life.
www.st-andrews.ac.uk/development
University of St Andrews
