February 2016
Education
The Catholic Foundation Committee, chaired by Francis Fanning, congratulates its scholarships recipients for the 2016 tertiary studies year and wishes them well in their chosen courses. The Committee also wishes the applicants who were not successful but were of equally high calibre well in their future studies.
Awards were presented at college prize-giving ceremonies in the Archdiocese of Wellington at the end of 2015. This was the first year Catholic students attending state colleges, in centres where there are no Catholic colleges, have been eligible.
It was also the first time the Foundation has awarded scholarships of $3000 a year, over three years, making each scholarship worth $9000. To receive those monies each year the students must provide evidence of successful study in the previous year. The Committee considers not only academic qualifications but all-round qualities of the students and their potential contributions to the Church and society.
The Foundation awards six general scholarships and two refugee scholarships. A recent new scholarship – The Margaret (Peggy) Ryan Scholarship – was named in honour of its benefactor. Peggy Ryan, who is retired and lives in Waikanae, has spent a lifetime dedicated to education as a maths teacher and an inspector of secondary schools. The refugee scholarships are named for their benefactors, Halina Fladrzynska-Morrow from Poland and Joseph Francis Kish from Hungary, both of whom settled in New Zealand in the 1950s.
Scholarship funding comes from donations and bequests to the Catholic Foundation, established by Cardinal Thomas Williams in 1981 to further enable the work of the Archdiocese.
Details of how to apply for a scholarship are on the Catholic Foundation’s website.