Dovre Scholarship helps engineer to succeed
Aaron Ferrao, 23, graduated last summer with a First in Mechanical Engineering and soon landed a job as a Validation Engineer at food production company ADM.
Aaron was the recipient of the Dovre Alumni Community Scholarship during the final year of his degree. He believes that gaining this scholarship helped him to focus on his studies instead of working student jobs to cover his living expenses.
He explained: “Having had no access to student loans, the high costs of education had consistently prevented me from realising the full potential from my university experience. In previous years I often found myself working student jobs that have been non-value adding to my engineering career. That’s where the Dovre Scholarship came in.”
Using part of the scholarship to cover his living expenses, allowed Aaron to divert his resources from taking non-value adding jobs to invest more time in becoming a better engineer. It also allowed him to take part in various Sports Clubs at the University, which helped him to develop other skills such as teamwork, competitiveness and dedication.
Aaron added: “I also used some of the scholarship money doing online courses and travelling to attend final stage interviews for prestigious graduate schemes with some of the biggest engineering companies in the UK. Some on the names include 3M, Caterpillar, ExxonMobil, GlaxoSmithKline, GE and Jaguar Land Rover.”
Aaron concluded: “While the outlook of 2020 wasn't generally be a positive one, I graduated feeling confident that I had developed the skills needed to make the world a better place.
I’d like to extend my sincerest thank you as the scholarship was an invaluable tool on my educational journey here at the University of Sunderland.
“The Dovre Scholarship has helped me greatly on my engineering journey. I hope to continue my duties as a STEM ambassador and give back to the community when I reach a suitable point in my career.”
