Ceredigion Youth Bursary 2024 awarded
Three young people from Ceredigion have benefitted from a cash bursary generously provided once again this year by West Wales Holiday Cottages.
The Ceredigion Youth Bursary is in its seventh year, with local business West Wales Holiday Cottages offering up to £1,500 for young people aged between 11 and 25 to help them with their future aspirations. Since its inception, 18 young people have been supported by the Ceredigion Youth Bursary. This year, a total of 33 applications were received, ranging from social enterprises to project ideas, community events and training requests.
The successful applications were chosen by Ceredigion Youth Forum (Panel Dewis) who carefully discussed and decided on three winners this year.
During the Summer Holiday, Youth Forum members met and spent several hours reading through and discussing each application. By utilising a scoring matrix, they decided to award the bursary to three successful candidates, for their innovative ideas and the potential impact on their lives and communities in Ceredigion.
Katie Whiteway, aged 14, Esme Drakeley, aged 13 and Lleucu-Haf Thomas, aged 15 all received a bursary to support them reach their personal goals in Sport and Music.
Gwion Bowen, Senior Children and Young People’s Participation Officer said: “We are very grateful to West Wales Holiday Cottages for allowing us this opportunity once again this year. Like ourselves, West Wales Holiday Cottages recognise the value of investing in our young people, so that they can be supported to reach their potential. It is a great opportunity to work collaboratively with a local business. It was brilliant to see the quality and quantity of the applications received. This opportunity is also a good experience for our Youth Forum members who did very well in making some difficult decisions.”
The winners were invited to a presentation evening in Arad Goch, Aberystwyth on 15 August 2024 to be presented with their cheques and for their achievements to be celebrated. Also invited to this year’s awards evening were last year’s bursary winners, Katie Jones, Cameron Allen and Ifan Meredith. Thomas Kendall, one of the bursary winners in 2021 also attended the evening and gave a speech about how the bursary enabled him to pursue a career in Occupational Therapy, and subsequently how it supported him to graduate as an Occupational Therapist who was then able to return to live and work in Ceredigion. During the evening, Panel Dewis members were also recognised for their work and commitment to supporting the Youth Bursary Scheme.
Lisa Stopher, Managing Director at West Wales Holiday Cottages said, “West Wales Holiday Cottages is privileged to sponsor the Ceredigion Youth Bursary. We are very proud to celebrate the talent, dedication, and hard work of the young people in our community and provide them with the support they need to achieve their dreams. The winners of the Bursary represent the very best of Ceredigions future, and their passion, resilience, and commitment are truly inspiring.”
Ifan Meredith, 2023 Bursary Winner and pupil at Ysgol Bro Pedr, who was unable to join the presentation evening said, “Winning this bursary [last year] has enabled me to continue developing my journalistic skills in order to be able to create important stories about local issues on the Clonc360 website together with Papur Bro Clonc. It is essential that such stories are published to ensure that people's opinions are voiced. I have shown my skills to present an unbiased story when creating an item about concerns over the future of Lampeter Library and my communication skills to interview Ceredigion Preseli candidates during the election period. The way I have been able to present professional stories is thanks to the Journalism and Media course I attended using money I received from the Ceredigion Young People's Bursary 2023.”
Councillor Wyn Thomas, Cabinet Member for Schools, Lifelong Learning and Skills, added: “Congratulations to all the young people who submitted strong applications for this bursary. It was a pleasure to see the exciting aspirations and innovation of our young people and I’m glad they can be recognised with this fantastic bursary. Good luck to all in the future.”
More information about next year’s bursary will be available in 2025.