Budding vet nurse one step closer to her dream

16 year old Wiradjuri woman Dakota is committed to a career as a Veterinary Nurse and she’s not afraid to get her hands dirty to achieve her goals.

Dakota is a passionate equestrian and travels 60km each day to attend Victory College in Gympie. Here she is able to pursue her dreams with school based equine and agricultural studies. Additionally, Dakota also competes in her school’s equestrian team.

Alongside her standard year 11 school work Dakota works two jobs to cover the cost of agistment and feed for her horse. But that’s not all. She also recently started volunteering at the Lazy Diamond Horse Riding School. Here she mucks out the stables, feeds the horses, cleans tack and rugs/unrugs the horse. In return she receives one riding lesson for every 4 hours of work.

‘My passion for horses started when I was only three years old,’ Dakota said.

‘Despite juggling the demands of school, riding lessons, two casual jobs and volunteering at the riding school I always find time to study. With my dedication to equestrianism I am hoping to become a vet nurse when I finish school’.

Dakota took home one of our Young, Black and Proud scholarships for academics. She plans to put her funds toward a vet nurse internship course through the Greencross Veterinary Clinic Noosa.

“Greencross have a partnership with the Animal Industries Resource Centre. They offer interns who have completed the program the chance to continue on to a certificate IV in Veterinary Nursing within the Greencross network,” Dakota said.

“It would be an amazing opportunity and really help me get my foot in the door for a career in veterinary nursing”.

This year we partnered with the Queensland Family and Child Commission to help students like Dakota achieve their dreams.