Recently the Faculty of Science, Agriculture, Business and Law held its first graduation ceremony for the year. One of the graduands who received her award at the ceremony was Beatrice Patterson. She graduated with a double degree, a Bachelor of Law and Business, majoring in business analytics. 

During her first three years of study at the University of New England, Bea lived at Robb College. Living at this college was her favourite thing about studying at UNE. College life gave Bea the opportunity to make new friends and become involved in the many activities which the university offers such as sport. In her final year of study, she moved into town but still had strong affiliations with the college.  

Bea is an incredibly hard worker and finishing her degree in less than the recommended study time would have been especially rewarding at the recent graduation ceremony. Usually a double degree takes a full-time student five years to complete, but Bea was able to do hers in just four years. She studied during the optional trimester three through the online study mode. Doing this enabled her to accelerate her degree and finish a year early.  

The advice Bea has for current students is to take some time to undertake work experience, especially in the middle of the degree. According to Bea, having work experience enables students to have an understanding of how to put their knowledge into practice and it will help when it comes to forging their careers beyond university.  

Now Bea has graduated, she has secured a job in a private law firm in Orange, NSW. Here she predominately works with the Family Law team within the firm. However, Bea does get the opportunity to work alongside the seven solicitors within her firm, and delve into other areas of law. Bea enjoys the job she currently has, but considers herself very lucky to have a double degree in Business and Law which will open so many doors for her in the future.