David Kettle
Following a very successful 2024, the student bursary committee of Letitia Blake, John Simkins and I were again charged with the difficult task of awarding our 2025 bursaries.
Our regional champions in Italy have worked extremely hard to spread the word of the Trust and inform schools and colleges of our bursary scheme and its core values. This year their efforts were rewarded with over 100 applications, most of them emanating from Le Marche, Abruzzo, Molise, Emilia-Romagna and Tuscany. We also broke new ground with applications from Piedmont and Trentino-Alto Adige, thanks to new contacts there.
The standard of the applicants was particularly high, and after much deliberation we were able to offer 42 bursaries for 2025.
For a second successive year we benefited from our relationship with the British Institute in Florence. The BIF delivered over 20 applicants and we were very pleased to be able to offer six bursaries to students from Florence. We were particularly thrilled to award two Vanni Treves bursaries to students from an Advantage School. These bursaries cover all expenses for the student and are generously sponsored by Ian Laing.
One of the two recipients, Marycielo Luna Rayme, was in fact the first student to arrive, in May. She was kindly invited to dinner by Vanni’s widow, Angela, the day before her return to Italy . The most popular months are once again July and August. Twelve of this year’s intake have chosen to study at CES Wheatley, near Oxford, and 32 at CES Wimbledon.
We hope to arrange a picnic in St James Park in the summer as this has proved very popular in the past.
It is always a thrill to hear from past students. This year, one of our students has returned to the school he attended in 2022, not as a student, but as an English teacher. He will be teaching some of our bursary recipients at Wheatley! Quite an achievement.
The legacy of our bursaries and the spirit in which they were created by Keith Killby continue to inspire and we look forward to hearing more adventures from our 2025 intake.