Thank you so much to the Ian Karten Charitable Trust for supporting a scholarship for Rilind Berisha to study at the University of Warwick. Your generosity means he has achieved his dream of studying to become a doctor.
Rilind was part of our Warwick Scholars Programme, which ensures that gifted and talented undergraduate scholars from under-represented backgrounds can take up a place at Warwick. Scholars benefit from academic support, networking opportunities and a bursary to help fund the costs of living and essential educational resources.
Rilind Berisha
BSc Biochemistry (2016-2019)
I’m in the second year of my medicine degree at King’s College London. We’ve just started our hospital placements and I’ve been really enjoying seeing patients and gaining the knowledge and skills I’ll need when I’m a fully qualified medic.
My proudest moments were receiving a first class degree from the University of Warwick and getting into Medical School. My third year at Warwick was incredibly challenging as I was balancing my studies and dissertation with my medical school application and interviews, which I thought would end up in me having to sacrifice one or the other. However, I worked incredibly hard in my final year and managed to achieve both.
The scholarship enabled me to fully cover my living costs without having to work as much as I would have otherwise. This allowed me to completely focus on my studies and extracurricular activities, such as taking part in the Undergraduate Research Scheme at Warwick where I had the opportunity to work with researchers and create my own project. Your support also allowed me to save money so that I could go to medical school straight out of Warwick without having to take a year out to work. I will be forever grateful for this.
Aside from the financial support, which has been more helpful than I could ever put into words, the aspect of community within the Warwick Scholars Programme was also incredibly helpful to me. Being able to make friends with people from similar backgrounds allowed me to really settle in and feel at home from the get go.