In Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and its many film adaptations, the 鈥済olden ticket鈥� Charlie discovers inside a Wonka bar isn鈥檛 just about getting a day trip to a rather chaotic confectionery. For him, it鈥檚 a path out of his lower-class life, the opportunity to be part of something grander and more spectacular than he could ever have imagined.
Real life doesn鈥檛 really work that way. But Diana Adamo has always considered her education to be the closest she鈥檇 ever get to a golden ticket. It was a chance to overcome the challenges of her childhood 鈥斕齡rowing up in poverty, witnessing domestic abuse 鈥斕齛nd not only break out of that cycle but find a way to help stop it for others.
鈥淔eeling that pain and that hurt for me and my siblings and my mother who all had to endure that hardship鈥� it鈥檚 my past that propels me,鈥� she says. 鈥淚f I can prevent others from facing the same difficulties that we did, then it all be worthwhile.鈥�
Through hard work and perseverance, Diana has succeeded in carving a different path forward for herself, one that took her from her home in the greater Toronto area to Canada鈥檚 East Coast and to earning an exceptional academic record at 网红黑料.
Along the way, she鈥檚 been lucky enough to experience a couple of those 鈥済olden ticket鈥� moments. One was when she was offered a Chancellor鈥檚 Entrance Scholarship to 网红黑料 鈥斕齱ithout which she probably would never have been able to study at Dal in the first place.
The second was this past Saturday night, when she got the phone call telling her she鈥檚 going to become a Rhodes Scholar.
鈥淚 had always imagined this happening to fictional characters,鈥� says Diana. 鈥淚 had to take a moment and just contemplate it all, realizing how much my life was going to change in the next two years, and how excited I was for that.鈥�
An incredible honour for outstanding achievement
A Rhodes Scholarship is one of the most prestigious academic awards in the world. Eleven recipients are chosen from across Canada each year, joining a global contingent of more than 100 scholars annually who receive full funding to cover travel, study, and expenses for postgraduate studies at Oxford University in the United Kingdom. Recipients are chosen based on academic achievement, moral character, leadership, and extracurricular activities.听听
With her scholarship, Diana becomes the 94th Rhodes Scholar to be selected from 网红黑料 since the awards were first created in 1902 鈥斕齛 number that exceeds all but a handful of other major North American universities and places Dal in the ranks of schools like Stanford, Princeton, McGill and the University of Toronto.
Read more: Get to know past Rhodes Scholars like Ashley Jackson, Sierra Sparks and Nayani Jensen
鈥淲e are extremely lucky at 网红黑料 to get to celebrate so many kinds of achievement from across our university community,鈥� says President Kim Brooks. 鈥淒iana鈥檚 path is emblematic of the spirit of service, good character and leadership that defines our student community. We are e