Sandra Dawson

What motivated you to embark on your chosen degree path?

It was 1991 and I was about to graduate from Aberdeen University with an honours degree in Agriculture.  I had specialised in animal science but I had no idea what to do with it.  I thought of doing a Masters Degree in animal nutrition or a PhD but I could not find anything that really inspired me.  Then I discovered that Glasgow Vet School was taking in a small numbers of mature students to study veterinary medicine and I decided to have one more go at my dream of becoming a veterinary surgeon.

How did you come to learn about the Trust? What impact of the funding did the funding from the Trust have?

I heard about the Trust when I went for interview at Glasgow vet school. If offered a place, I would get straight into second year because of my agricultural degree but I would have to pay tuition fees for my second year. I was going to be spending the next four years as a student again, so my finances were already going to be stretched. Funding from the Carnegie Trust really helped to give me confidence that I was making the right decision.

What have you gone on to do since your graduation?

I graduated from Glasgow vet school in July 1995 and went straight into mixed practice in Staffordshire. Since then I have done a residency in veterinary anatomical pathology at Edinburgh University Vet School and for the past 13 years I have worked as a veterinary pathologist for NationWide Laboratories in Poulton-le-Fylde, Lancashire.

Sandra studied at the Glasgow School of Veterinary Studies, graduating in 1995.