Daniela the what?

I think I'll use this post to introduce myself properly. My name is Daniela Ivana Barisic Sprem. You can call me DIBS. I have recently turned 18, currently study full time at Macquarie University and work two jobs. I have a big Croatian family and a dog named Medo (teddy bear). I have a passion for music and play a few instruments; my favourite being the drums. I love animals from rats to lizards to lions and cats. I have a very hard time listing my interests and hobbies because there are so many.

I also ride dirt bikes and want to get my road bike license when I get enough money. I love the film/TV/entertainment industry and did drama in high school and outside of school. I love playing soccer and riding my push bike for hours on end. The giant list of interests up there is why I am having a hard time at uni and thinking of where I am going in life. It was hard enough finding a uni course to settle on, and even though I am doing a double degree, I still want to try more courses. So I have made it through 5 weeks of university and I am not liking it as much as people said I would. I don't know if I am just doing the wrong course or if further education isn't my thing. I dropped a math unit already because I don't like the idea of paying for something I don't want to do. I am also terrible at it. 

I love working because i get paid for work AND I learn new skills at the same time. As we all do, I have my dream jobs and my realistic dream jobs. I thought I wanted to be a HR manager but now I think I want to work with animals. Whether it be training guide/assistance dogs or working at the RSPCA or Animal Welfare League. 
If I could have the job I wanted most, no matter how crazy, 

I would be a talk show host. I would love to be the Australian Ellen or the new Rove McManus. That could be me interviewing PINK! 

I love talking, making people feel better and sharing knowledge. 
Other occupational phases I've gone through are DJ, motivational speaker, comedian, club owner, police officer, camp counsellor, music therapist, teacher, uni lecturer, psychologist, musician and the list goes on. 
They say my generation is likely to go through 21 different jobs and 7 career path changes before settling on one. I am aware that many people have the same problem as me and some people like constantly changing things up... I guess I am just in a hurry to find what I am good at and to start making money. 

For now I am Daniela the student. Daniela the Pinnacle Scholar. Daniela the sister, daughter, cousin, friend and loved one - which makes me one lucky kid.

By Daniela Ivana Barisic Sprem

Turning things around

Hi Ashleigh,

Tony & I have just finished marking the exams. During this process, we also keep track of students whose answers are particularly good. You’re one of these students. Your overall result was strong, but we just wanted you to know that the quality that impressed us most was your sensible approach to the scenarios.

Tony & I are looking forward to being involved in your education next Semester. We want to hear your voice in the Tutorials as well – your knowledge base shows you certainly have some useful information for your peers. Speak up!

Great work. Keep it up.

Regards

Cam, and on behalf of Tony.

- - -

Above is an email from my lecturers at uni, sent last Friday. When I got it I cried.

I will never, ever forget that moment.

Last year Cam and Tony would not have known I existed. They wouldn't have seen me during lectures, because I was at work during most of them. They wouldn't have noticed my marks, because I was barely scraping by. They wouldn't have noticed me in tutorials, because I was always running late from work and leaving early to go back to work, and spent the time in class staying as small and as quiet as possible, while desperately trying to catch up on what I had missed that week.

This email was sent to several other students. They will file it away with all the other encouragement they have ever received from their lecturers, parents and families. For me, it is stuck on my bathroom mirror, because it is the first time since I have started my degree that I have felt hopeful. It is the first time I have real hope that I might actually finish my degree.

Every single day I have struggled to stay with my education. Life has felt like a catch 22 – If you want to study at uni you need the money to buy books and pay rent and food and go to the doctors and just live, so you work a lot but when you work a lot you don't have time to go to uni or study for uni, so your grades begin to fail and it looks like you might not pass your courses, so you cut back your hours and fit some more study in, but then its harder to make rent so you get stressed and the fear of living on the streets forces you back to work everyday and you tell yourself that the basic essentials are shelter food and water and that education can come later, except that education is the way out of poverty, and you learnt that at uni, so you should just try try try to get this degree and don't give up just yet, just get through one more semester and it won't last forever and one day you will graduate.

Thanks to Pinnacle, that 'one day' is looking a lot more possible today, then it was a year ago. Why don't you better your odds? Put yourself in a better position. Make a Choice, to apply for a scholarship. Take a Chance that it might get accepted. Take the steps to Change your situation. Apply for a Pinnacle Scholarship today.

By Ashleigh Scriven