A celebration of The Alton College Foundation’s 300th Scholarship for Excellence and 20 years since the charity was established, proved inspirational.
Held on Friday 15 March 2019 in the Martin Read Hall at Alton College, the 17th annual Alton College Foundation Scholarship Awards ceremony saw the presentation of scholarships for English, art, engineering, medicine, science, music, modern foreign languages and mathematics awarded to 16 students – among them the student chosen to be the 300th recipient.
It was a special moment for James Cudbertson who received the Craven Brothers Scholarship in Engineering from Michael Campbell M.B.E., D.L. of the Ellis Campbell Foundation, sponsor of the award. The handing over of this key award marked a major milestone for what Alton College Foundation managing director Trevor Heley described as “the most successful state education focussed scholarship scheme in the UK”.
Launched by the Foundation in 2002, the scheme aims to “encourage students to be the best they can” by providing some financial support, backed by the belief that they can do well in their chosen subject.
There was no better way to demonstrate the success of the scheme than to hear from former Alton College Foundation scholars, Timothy Clark (Engineering 2010-11), Benedict Vigers (Geography 2013-14) and Sarah Buckwell (Engineering 2014-15). Each of the former scholars provided inspirational speeches about how their scholarship had shaped their future and had helped to propel them forward into successful careers. Their appreciation of the scholarship funds and confidence that being awarded the scholarship had given them was reflected in their presentations.
In this special year, the alumni of the Alton College Foundation supported their own Scholarship for Excellence in English. This scholarship was awarded to Sophie Jones and presented on the night by the first principal of the College, Michael Gray.
It was a heartening message for Nicholas Branch, Chairman of the Foundation, who with Hector Brown co-founded the charity in 1999. Nicholas reflected on the launch of the Foundation as an independent charity to help the college provide facilities and equipment that could not be delivered from Government Funds.
Since its creation, the Foundation has raised over £500,000 which had brought equipment for the College, will have from this month awarded over 300 scholarships and provided grants of over £70,000 since 2010 – a truly amazing achievement made possible through the support of sponsors, among them the Rotary Club of Alton, the Lions Club of Alton (CIO), The Arts Society Alton, the Dischma Trust, the Ellis Campbell Foundation, Mrs Merula Frankel, Sir James Scott, Sir Simon and Lady Robertson, Mr Peter Gaffney, Mr George Heller, The Aerogen Company Limited, Mr and Mrs Wilson and Mr Nicholas Branch himself.
In paying tribute to all those involved in the scheme, Jon Myers, Head of Centre at Alton College thanked the Foundation sponsors and donors on behalf of the College and also his staff for their support in the selection process. Mr Myers praised the outstanding quality of all the applicants and congratulated those receiving scholarships and urged them to seize this opportunity to enrich and enhance their learning opportunities.