Latest News From EDT
Headstart student clinches an engineering scholarship hat-trick
A Headstart student hit the jackpot not once, not twice but three times in her efforts to get financial support during university.
Alex Mitchell’s road to success began in the summer of 2006 when she took part in a Headstart course at Heriot Watt University. The four-day residential ‘Introduction to Engineering’ helped Alex decide to focus on civil engineering in her studies and she is now studying civil and structural engineering at Leeds University.
Alex comments ‘My favourite part of the Headstart course was our civil engineering challenge, which was to build a small bridge out of balsa wood to withstand large weights, which our team won, managing to hold around 130kg. I enjoyed the whole process of working in a team and problem solving and knew straight away Civil Engineering was the career for me.’
Alex applied for scholarship and sponsorship programmes to help her throughout her four-year course, including an application to Taylor Woodrow, one of Headstart's sponsors. As a result of attending the Headstart course, Alex received a booklet from Taylor Woodrow outlining under-graduate sponsorships in various building careers, encouraging prospective university students to apply. Alex got a better result than she dreamed of following her applications.
She received an undergraduate sponsored student award from Taylor Woodrow, which includes a guaranteed job prospect with the company after graduation, and scholarships from the Inspire Scholarship and Ice Quest schemes. She said, ‘I’m so shocked to get all three awards. I thought I might get one if I was lucky but I never imagined I would get them all, especially the Ice Quest Award, as it is open to people applying to do civil engineering courses across the UK and they knew I already had the other two. They give me a lot of support, will be great for my CV and the funding has really helped with my university costs. I chose to do civil engineering because I like the prospect of being part of big construction projects and seeing them develop over time.’
Her mother, Lynn, said ‘As parents we are very proud of what Alex has achieved, especially as she is the first member of the family to study at A level and then continue on to University.’ Alex also said that she is looking forward to her work placements with Taylor Woodrow and was happy not to have the pressure of finding a job after her degree. For more information about Headstart, please visit www.headstartcourses.org.uk