Bianca wants to give hope to people with a disability

“I’ve had sort of a hard trot. I always had an educational support teacher throughout schooling, and school was always difficult for me. I kind of felt my calling during COVID and just decided to take up study to see where it goes.” 

It has taken her from a Certificate IV in Community Services to the second year of a Bachelor of Education Studies. Bianca hopes her study will give her the tools to help develop programs and curriculums in the NDIS. 

Living with a disability herself, Bianca has felt a pull to the sector. She wants to give people who have disabilities hope and show them that it’s not a “full-stop”.   

It’s not about how fast you do things, it’s about the journey and just enjoying it.

Bianca’s ability to see beyond the hurdles and to the possibilities that lay ahead stems from a lifetime of overcoming her own struggles, whether with housing and homelessness or managing her disability. 

It was her resilient nature that led her to the Scholarships office when she found herself in a challenging financial situation. She had been in a car accident where someone ran into her car and then drove off. She was forced to pay the excess on her insurance because she did not have the other driver’s details, and she needed her car for work. 

At the same time, her studies were suffering because her laptop could no longer hold its charge and was operating slowly, constantly requiring a restart and sometimes losing all her work. 

When the Scholarships office told her she was the ideal candidate for a Thrive Grant, she was over the moon. She purchased a new laptop that has made university life so much easier. 

“Obviously university life can be stressful, it can be emotional, and just not having those extra stressors added to my study life.”  

One thing that I’m passionate about … is that knowledge is power. And if you can help a student learn, then I think that you’re doing a good deed.

Bianca is so grateful that there are people out there donating to help students like her. And so are we. Thank you for giving students like Bianca the power to succeed.