Scholarship helped Claudia achieve a family first

In 2019, Claudia Cox was awarded the Grant F. Marani First in Family  Scholarship. This gift – generously established by New York-based alumni Grant Marani and Anne Rieselbach – supports a Bachelor of  Design student who is the first in their family to attend university.

For Claudia Cox, attending university to become an architect has been a life-long ambition. But pursuing her dream had its challenges.

Towards the end of Claudia’s time at high school, money was tight as the drought impacted her family’s farming business in Sea Lake, north-western Victoria. On top of that, Claudia was stepping into unknown territory as the first in her family to pursue university education.

Claudia Cox
Claudia Cox

“Being the first in the family to leave for university was definitely a little nerve wracking for me – however, mostly exciting. I’ve known from a very young age that I wanted to go to university and move away from home.

As much as I love the farm, I knew it wasn’t something I wanted to do forever. I was also really excited to live in Melbourne, as it was a completely new experience for me as I had only been part of a small-town community. Since attending university in Melbourne, I have developed so much as a person and really found who I am and what I want to do in my life.

I’m sure I would not be the same person I am today without this amazing opportunity.

This scholarship has made attending university possible for me. It has taken so much financial pressure off my parents and myself. It is so nice to have been able to lift some of the pressure off my shoulders so I can completely focus on my studies.

This scholarship meant that I didn’t have to work as frequently during my degree and got to attend a college where I found all my friends, whom I could not be more grateful for.

In the future, I hope to move overseas to do my masters or graduate work. I haven’t narrowed down the details just yet, but I know that I want to see more of the world while studying.”

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