The road less taken: Stories of City St George’s students who took unconventional paths to study at the university

Daniella Tamburrino Desa is graduating with a degree in LLB. But this is far from the plan she had for herself since she was a toddler.

She was originally planning on becoming a doctor and studying for her medical school entrance exams, back in her home country, Canada. But then, just two weeks before giving her exams, she cancelled it and decided medicine wasn't for her.

I went to this society group, and they were having an ethical debate. These were all aspiring doctors, and in that moment, I realized that maybe med school was not for me and law was probably where I was meant to go.

My background is very scientific. And to transfer into law school, where it's such a different thought process, such a different way of writing and interpretation, it was kind of surreal. I spent four years preparing for my medical entrance, and that was not what I wanted to do anymore. So, I started searching for law schools. It was exciting, but scary.

Her decision to join City St George’s was carefully thought out. She liked the modules, found a nice community of Canadians, and supportive academic staff.

“A lot of the professors were very helpful. They wanted you to succeed as much as you did. So that was always encouraging to be able to talk to somebody like that. The university also had a medical bioethics class, which most other law schools didn't. I was able to combine my existing knowledge of medicine with law, which made this class fun. It was very eye opening on how the law works within the medical field.”

Chiara Rex was another student who came from a different environment to London. Originally from Marwitz (Oberkrämer) in Germany, a village with ‘more cows than humans’, as she mentioned in her graduation speech, Chiara had to cycle two hours to get to school.

“We’re far away from general society. It's very green; we’re surrounded by so many farm animals. London is so different from any city I’ve ever been to. There are so many people here. I was very scared at first, but that changed quite quickly. I always go to immerse myself in London parks to help me feel right at home.

“In Germany, you don't really learn about higher education. We don't have criminology as a course. After being rejected from a job in the UK around the same time, I thought about applying for my course instead.

My biggest cultural shock is seeing the people. In Germany, everyone is always watching what you’re doing. In London, people just mind their own business. You can just be yourself.

At a time when the value of higher education is being questioned, students like Chiara and Daniella found university the perfect next step towards their careers.

“For me, university has further enhanced specific skill sets I already had from my undergraduate degree. This includes time management of academic as well as personal responsibilities. I got to experience new opportunities in and out of the school, learnt research skills, how to handle pressure, and critical thinking,” said Daniella.

Regarding her experience of university, Chiara added:

I had a rough idea of the direction I wanted to go in, just not the exact job. I believe that my time at university gave me space to figure that out. I also got to do a placement in second year through my data analytics pathway, so I had hands-on experience plus the academic side.

As an international student, it also meant I could move abroad and build a career at the same time instead of just travelling with no real plan, which felt really important to me because I didn't want to feel like I was putting my future on hold.