First in family to graduate

Laura BurgessThe first from a Warwickshire family to be awarded a Masters degree felt ‘a big relief’ to be graduating after ‘a lot of hard work’.

Laura Grace Burgess, 22, from Rugby, was awarded an MSc Neuroimaging postgraduate degree with distinction, and feels proud to have achieved this for her family.

Laura has spent the last four years at Bangor having graduated with a first class BSc (Hons) Psychology with Neuropsychology degree in 2015. Neither of her parents attended university, which makes her the first in her immediate family to graduate, and now the first in her extended family to be awarded a Masters degree.

Having enjoyed the course immensely, Laura said: “The fact that the course gives you hands on experience in the scanner during your project is so valuable and puts you at an advantage for applying for PhDs -something not all masters courses can offer. I’ve learnt all of the background in how imaging works and had a practical module to learn how to design fMRI experiments using MatLab and other software for analysing fMRI data. Added to this I had the freedom to choose taught modules that I was interested in, based more in neuropsychology. It's a brilliant course, that though challenging, really prepares you for a future career using brain imaging techniques.”

“During my studies I worked at the University as both a public speaking mentor at the School of Psychology and as a peer writing mentor at the Study Skills Department. Having these jobs was great, as they didn’t put too much strain on my studying, and they arguably improved my own confidence and writing abilities, through helping others I managed to develop myself academically, and had great fun at the same time!

Laura is now currently studying for a PhD at the University of Reading and hopes to go onto a career in academia.

Publication date: 15 December 2016