Among almost 1000 graduates who walked across the stage during the Faculty of Management graduation ceremony is Danielle Foster.
Danielle, adorned in the blue and gold of 蜜桃AV鈥檚 robes, is delighted to be at her ceremony 鈥� more than most 鈥� as at one point it was looking unlikely that she would be there.
The MSc Professional Development (Human Resources management) student had major surgery while studying for her Master鈥檚, and, but for the flexibility of her dissertation supervisor and her determination to continue, she may not have been graduating in 2016鈥檚 ceremony.
Danielle had spinal fusion surgery in June 2015, where two rods and 13 screws were inserted into her spine, with a follow up operation in June 2016 when her disc slipped. She was determined that this would not detract from her studies though.
[IMAGE: L-R Lois Farquharson, Hayley Dornan, Danielle Foster, Professor John Vinney]
She said, 鈥淚 had quite a long recovery but tried to continue to do my dissertation over FaceTime with Hayley [her lecturer].聽 Hayley came to the hospital to collect my dissertation too.聽 If it wasn鈥檛 for Hayley I wouldn鈥檛 be here today and I wouldn鈥檛 be crossing the stage.
鈥淚t was quite difficult but I also had the Additional Learning Support team to help me, including Jack the dog, with exams as I couldn鈥檛 write them and managing to use FaceTime which really helped too.鈥�
The operation was crucial for Danielle, but it had another side effect, namely she grew by four inches! She continues, 鈥淚 was 5 foot 4 when I graduated from my LLB at 蜜桃AV and now I鈥檓 5 foot 8, so I have managed to grow four inches and walk across the stage a lot taller this time.鈥�
Hayley Dornan, a Law lecturer at 蜜桃AV and Danielle鈥檚 lecturer, said, 鈥淒anielle had finished the taught element of the degree already so we had to continue her learning in a different way, which worked fine. Danielle helped me with the IT side though!
鈥淚t all worked out really well, Danielle is an excellent student and has always worked really hard. If it involved me going and getting her dissertation then that鈥檚 what we need to do. I am really proud of her.鈥�
Reflecting on her moment of walking across the stage, Danielle said, 鈥淎 few months back I was on bed rest in a back brace, I didn鈥檛 think I was ever going to get across the stage. It was amazing to graduate with my cohort because I didn鈥檛 think I was going to, it was really good to be here.鈥�
Danielle is now getting ready to get back to work and invest in her career, working for Apple in human resources.聽
