It is everyone’s dream to work in a field they love, and with the help of some well-deserved scholarships Bernadette Drabsch is living her dream.

The 38-year-old mother of two teenagers completed a degree in natural history illustration with honours at the University of Newc-astle and is now embarking on a master’s degree.

Her studies have already taken her to archeological sites in Jordan that date from 6000 years BC and Ms Drabsch will head to Jerusalem this year to work on a dig before illustrating artifacts at the Rockefeller Museum.

She will then draw each site and ancient artifact in minute detail before using archeological research to recreate long-buried buildings.

And Ms Drabsch says she didn’t start drawing until she was 30.

“It’s something I came to later in life, I only sort of picked up a pen in about 2002, I think,” she said.

Ms Drabsch finished high school in Year 10 and didn’t decide on a path through university until her children where at school and no longer needed her at home.

“I took the children overseas and came back very confident, I thought if I can do that, why not go to uni,” she said.

“Then I saw a display at the Natural History Museum that I really loved.

“I thought ‘I want to do that’ and rang the university that day.”

During the past six years of her study, Mrs Drabsch has been granted several scholarships by the university to help ease the financial burden.

After a few minor scholarships that Ms Drabsch said gave her more confidence than anything else, she was awarded the Williams Under-graduate Scholarship in Classics and the Deputy Vice-Chancellor’s Scholar-ship before this year accepting a prestigious Australian Postgraduate Award.

Ms Drabsch said it would have been much more difficult to follow her dream career without the help the scholarships gave her.

And she may not have had the opportunity to dig for ancient treasures in exotic countries.

Visit www.newcastle.edu.au for more information on the university’s scholarship programs.