Sophie Board followed in the footsteps of her mother and two sisters in becoming a graduate of Charles Sturt University (CSU) in Dubbo on Friday.
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Four graduates in one family makes new head of campus Cathy Maginnis optimistic that Dubbo is building a “university culture” through families.
A graduation ceremony for 78 students at Dubbo Regional Theatre and Convention Centre (DRTCC) drew an audience of about 240 people, including the Board family.
Born and bred in Dubbo, 24-year-old Ms Board said her mother Corrina had been a role model for her and sisters Lucy and Keera to go to CSU in Dubbo. “It was never forced upon us to study in Dubbo, but the opportunity was there and it was good that we could still live here and work,” she said.
Ms Board has never doubted her decision to follow her mother and sister Lucy in studying for a Bachelor of Nursing with the “smaller” CSU campus in Dubbo affording her individual support.“You have the advantage of smaller classes and getting to know your lecturers really well,” she said.“You have so much support and help along the way.”
Ms Board said CSU in Dubbo was like a “family” with great university friendships set to make the transition to the workplace. “We’re all quite close, the nursing class, and most of us are going to be working together at Dubbo Hospital,” she said.
Fellow student of “distinction”and nursing graduate Jocelyn McKay, 30, echoed Ms Boards’s enthusiasm for their alma mater. Heavily involved in student committees, the Dubbo woman “loved” studying at the campus off Tony McGrane Drive and the chance to get a “great education that makes you work-ready” without incurring the “massive costs of living” in a metropolitan city. Next year she will work in remote Western NSW hospitals.
At DRTCC on Friday Ms Maginnis encouraged inspection of a borrowed rhino statue showing CSU in Dubbo statistics including a graduate employment rate above 85.2 per cent, six percentage points above the national average.