Terry Kitson Grant Funds Tanzania Trip

A student at The Sixth Form College, Solihull is preparing to spend a month in Tanzania, after ebing granted funds by the Terry Kitson Award for Service to the Community.

Megan Hurley (aged 17, from Shirley) is planning to help build a school in Tanzania for this volunteer project. She is going with 14 other students, from Alderbrook School, where Megan used to be a student before coming to the College. The trip is called the World Challenge.

Megan is coming towards the end of her first year at the College, where she is studying AS Chemistry, Geography, Mathematics and Spanish. She has also been taking part in the Duke of Edinburgh scheme, doing her Gold award, so adventure and exploration is nothing new to her.

As well as her work at the school in Tanzania, Megan is also planning to do some trekking in the country.

"It’s not long till my trip (leaving on 19th July) and I’m really looking forward to it," said Megan. "It should be a really wonderful experience and I hope that the work that we do out there will really help local people."

£2,000 worth of bursaries are granted to the students via the Terry Kitson Award each year. The fun was established to remember the late Terry Kitson, a governor at the College from October 1992 to September 1999. Students work with the wider community was an issue close to his heart, hence this bursary was set up as a fitting memorial to a friend and colleague and a way of supporting students looking to undertake voluntary projects during Gap years.

As well as Megan, four other students were successful in their application for funds this year. Other past winners of this award have completed volunteer projects in countries like China, India, Brazil and Malawi to name a few destinations.