Search by category: alumni stories
The 1972 Club reunions: not all feasting and frivolity
Dr Ian Clark (MB ChB 1972) describes what it was like to study Medicine here in the late 1960s and why the 1972 Club decided to give back by setting up a class medical scholarship as part of the Wardlaw Scholarship scheme.
11 February 2020Alumni stories
An unbroken thread…
Julia Melvin (MA 1964) describes here the unbroken thread of four generations of her family who studied at St Andrews – beginning with the renowned Principal James Colquhoun Irvine, who graduated in 1898.
17 January 2020Alumni stories
Dancing still fit and healthy at 70
I reached St Andrews by bus in September 1965, and struggled up the hill to St Regulus Hall with one suitcase in each hand. There were no wheelies in those days. I had two objectives: Political Economy, and Scottish Country Dancing.
27 November 2019Alumni stories
Summit Mont Blanc 2020
Next summer in 2020 Alistair Galloway (BSc Biochemistry 2001) is planning an expedition to climb and summit Mont Blanc – the highest mountain in Europe and the Alps at 4,810m (15,781 ft) – to raise money for Multiple Sclerosis, young and gender diverse climbers, explorers and adventurers and a University of St Andrews Scholarship Fund, amongst…
25 November 2019Alumni stories Fundraising
Greenland Crossing in the footsteps of Fridtjof Nansen
Louis Supple came to St Andrews in 2007 and graduated with a history degree in 2011. While he was studying here, Louis became fascinated by former Rector Fridtjof Nansen and his polar expeditions to Greenland – to the extent that in 2019 he skied across the Arctic island of Svalbard in preparation for eventually fulfilling…
18 November 2019Alumni stories
Where Kate met Kevin
Kate Howatson (MA 1982) arrived here as an undergraduate in 1978 and, in the best St Andrews tradition, she met her future husband Kevin (MBChB 1980) during the first semester. Kevin died of Motor Neurone Disease (MND) in 2015, and Kate and her daughter Olivia decided to walk the North Coast 500 this summer (2019)…
24 October 2019Alumni stories Fundraising
Saints Sport: Paving the way for future success
Susie Carr graduated from St Andrews with a degree in Philosophy in 2014. Here she describes the opportunities that the University gave her to play sport at the highest level, and how this paved the way for her recent selection for the Great Britain women’s squad in the Australian Football (AFL) European Championships in London…
3 September 2019Alumni stories
A change of destiny for one alumna
Helen Hwang came to study at the University of St Andrews in 1986 as part of a Junior Year Abroad (JYA) while she was an undergraduate at the University of Virginia. When her daughter decided to attend a summer programme here in June 2019, Helen took the opportunity to come back for a mothers’ and…
28 August 2019Alumni stories
International St Andrews: from Edgecliffe to Madagascar
Michael Docherty graduated with an MA in Philosophy in 2004 and tried several different career paths before he took up the post of Administrative Director in Centre ValBio, Madagascar. In this video clip he describes the different opportunities that a degree from St Andrews has given him, and how ValBio came to be shortlisted for…
19 July 2019Alumni stories
Entrepreneurial St Andrews alumni: Giulia Melchiorre
I started my St Andrews journey in September 2011, when I arrived in Scotland for the very first time. With its long-standing, quirky traditions, strong sense of community and amazing academic opportunities, the University of St Andrews immediately made me feel at home.
22 May 2019Alumni stories