16 October 2020

One of our Year 12 students, Ellie (pictured) has been successful in gaining a prestigious scholarship to a Cambridge University Summer School. 

This is a fantastic achievement and we congratulate her warmly on this success.

Ellie writes:

During the summer, I saw a programme that was offering full and partial scholarships to study for two weeks at an Oxbridge university for students all over the world. With nothing else to do, and with the prospect of gaining a beneficial experience for higher education, I decided to research further into it. The essay guidelines were slightly confusing – I had never written anything like this before, and looking at previous competition winners made me feel even more daunted. However, figuring I had nothing to lose, I read through the list of essay questions, and picked the one for the course I wanted to study, “Is the UN still relevant?”

With only a week to research and write my essay, I spent the first three days reading articles and expert opinions on my chosen subject, which had proved more difficult than I originally expected. Soon enough, I had written and registered my essay, and had a month to wait to hear of my result.

In mid-September, I received an email from the programme’s director congratulating me on winning a partial scholarship, and that in the summer of 2021 I would be studying under leading academics and tutors at Cambridge University for International Relations. I was quite stunned – what had been a spontaneous effort had paid off in my favour. I think that writing the essay was beneficial in the aspect of providing me insight to what work at university will be like, and participating in the programme will also provide me with a unique student experience.