Scholarships at the University of Sydney give more than just financial support. They instil confidence and a drive to succeed. For these five students, donor-funded scholarships changed everything.

When Maddison Eveleigh was 13, she started working at her local bakery to save money to go to university. She longed to study at the University of Sydney, but it felt like a daunting ambition. No-one in her family had ever been to university, and she would need to move to the city from her home in Moruya, on the NSW south coast.

“In country towns, university is not always the expected path and it can be very difficult to afford,” she says.

She studied hard, hoping to get the results she needed to study science, but even with her savings and some financial help from her family, she knew she wouldn’t have enough to cover rent and living expenses in Sydney. Her only hope was a scholarship. She applied for the University of Sydney Early Offer Year 12 Scholarship, a donor?supported scheme for students from financially disadvantaged backgrounds or low socioeconomic schools.

Eveleigh got into her chosen course and won the scholarship. “When I got it, I immediately felt like the University of Sydney wanted me as a student,” she says. “They can see the difference between coming from a rural or a city school.”