Molly Bedrock feared her dyslexia might pose problems when she first arrived at Aberdeen University.
But yesterday, the 22-year-old completed her education and collected her degree at Elphinstone Hall by confirming that campus life had provided a bedrock to match her name.
The youngster from Aberdeen admitted she had been short of confidence at the outset of her studies. But that isn’t a problem any more.
She said: “I did a gap year before I came to university, and, because I am quite badly dyslexic, I found some things much harder or had to really organise myself a lot more than other people.
“But, throughout my time at university, I have found I am more capable than I first thought of looking after myself.
“I also think I have managed to grow in confidence a lot, because, at times, I was pushed out of my comfort zone and wasn’t too sure if I would be able to cope.
“But the support at Aberdeen has been great and I’ve really grown up through my years here.
“Living away from home, you have to be able to rely on yourself and not others all of the time, and now I am leaving university, I know I can rely on myself.”
Miss Bedrock undertook two summer placements during university with Dana Petroleum.
She said taking part in this work had been vital in discovering what she wanted to do next.
She said: “The placements were in engineering and maintenance and in sub-sea and I found I was very interested in health and safety and the environmental side of engineering.
“And, through that, I would now really recommend that other people do placements as university work can be quite abstract.
“Whereas, if you do a placement, you get a better idea of what you might like to do with your degree, and get to try and few different things out to find the right fit for you.”
