Bella Clifford

Medicine, Nursing and Health Science

For Bella, growing up on a farming property outside Warrnambool meant growing up in a close-knit community where life felt familiar.

For many young people in the region, staying close to home was the expected path. Universities in the city were physically distant and, for much of Bella's childhood, difficult to picture as part of her future.

"As a child, university felt a bit like dreaming of becoming a rockstar: exciting to imagine, but hard to believe would ever happen for someone like me," Bella says.

What she did know was that she loved physics and mathematics.

Bella speaks about how grateful she is for her high school experience and how much she enjoyed her time there. Pursuing her interests in a rural setting, however, also came with some challenges. Bella completed Year 12 Physics online because her school could not offer the subject in person. In several senior classes, including Physics and advanced Mathematics, she was often the only girl in the room.

"There were definitely times when it didn't make me feel particularly welcomed in the space," she says. This only motivated her further and she became determined to continue pursuing the subjects she loved.

That determination eventually led her to Monash.

During Year 12, Bella attended an Open Day at the Clayton campus. After a long drive from Warrnambool, she stepped onto campus with her Dad and immediately felt something shift.

"The feeling of being on campus: the atmosphere that it made, the buildings, it just all came together,” she said. For the first time, university no longer felt like a distant possibility, and she knew that the university she wanted to attend was Monash.

Arriving on campus was both exciting and daunting. After her parents left her at residential accommodation, Bella found herself alone for the first time in her life. Everything was new: the campus, the city and the experience of living independently.

But as she began meeting other students, learning her way around campus and settling into university life, that initial uncertainty gradually gave way to confidence.

I remember looking around and being like, this is my home now. I felt at peace with myself for making this decision. ”

A significant part of that transition was the support Bella received from her Monash educators.

Learning at university had initially felt overwhelming. Yet Bella quickly discovered that her teachers were deeply invested in their students' success. "They truly care," she says. "They want us to succeed."

Lab demonstrators and teaching associates regularly checked in with her, offering feedback, discussing assignments one-on-one and helping her build confidence in unfamiliar learning environments.

"They made me feel like I wasn't completely lost," Bella says. "I found having that support made me feel a lot more safe." These moments of encouragement reinforced something she had begun to feel from her very first visit to campus: that she belonged.