When Rebekah, 37, gave up her place at a campus university to care for her disabled son, she feared her academic aspirations would never be fulfilled.<\/p>\n
Now on course to achieve a Law degree, Rebekah shares how receiving The Open University Carers\u2019 Scholarship<\/a> allows her to study flexibly around the needs of her family, whilst knocking on the door of her dream career.<\/p>\n In 2020, Rebekah had been a full-time mum and carer for over eleven years and yearned to further her education.<\/p>\n \u201cAs a parent with life-long caring responsibilities, I worried that my chance of getting a degree had passed,\u201d explains Rebekah. \u201cIt felt like there were no affordable and accessible options for me, yet I couldn\u2019t let go of my dream to study Law.\u201d<\/p>\n Determined not to give up, Rebekah set about exploring how she could study from home and whether any funding options were available to her.<\/p>\n \u201cI was shocked and utterly thrilled to find out that The Open University (OU) offered a Law degree I could fit around my children, and with the possibility of financial support,\u201d Rebekah remembers.<\/p>\n \u201cI submitted my scholarship application, setting out my circumstances and aspirations – and to my sheer delight – I was offered full funding for my Law degree plus a little extra to buy a laptop.\u201d<\/p>\n In her fourth year of study, Rebekah is inching towards her goal of becoming a barrister, achieving impressive results along the way.<\/p>\n \u201cMy journey so far has been wonderful,\u201d Rebekah reflects. \u201cMy tutors have been incredibly supportive, as have the brilliant scholarships team. I love the structure and purpose my studies have given me and I\u2019ve realised that I never want to stop learning.\u201d<\/p>\n Grabbing every opportunity with both hands, Rebekah has won a place on the Middle Temple\u2019s Access to the Bar Award<\/a>, which provides work experience for Law graduates from underrepresented groups, to support their journey to the Bar.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m so grateful to the OU Law School for putting me forward for the award, says Rebekah. \u201cThere\u2019s a long way to go before I become a barrister, but I feel like I\u2019m well on my way.\u201d<\/p>\n Recognising that scholarships are funded by donations from the OU\u2019s amazing community; Rebekah has this message:<\/p>\n \u201cNone of this would have been possible without the generosity of donors. Finding out I\u2019d been selected to receive a scholarship was the first time in years that I felt seen, valued and worth investing in.<\/p>\n \u201cThe words \u2018thank you\u2019 hardly do justice in conveying my gratitude, but I will say them anyway \u2013 thank you from the bottom of my heart!\u201d<\/p>\n Every donation<\/a> helps to deliver the OU\u2019s mission of making education open to all.\u00a0If you’re a carer looking to fulfil your potential with The Open University, head to our scholarships page<\/a> to find out more.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" When Rebekah, 37, gave up her place at a campus university to care for her disabled son, she feared her academic aspirations would never be fulfilled. Now on course to achieve a Law degree, Rebekah shares how receiving The Open University Carers\u2019 Scholarship allows her to study flexibly around the needs of her family, whilst […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":25305,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,21],"tags":[1643,2142],"class_list":["post-25301","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-student-stories","category-uncategorized","tag-ou-news","tag-student-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25301","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25301"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25301\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25305"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25301"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25301"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25301"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Keeping the dream alive<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Worth the wait<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Message to donors<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Inspired by Rebekah’s story?<\/h2>\n