Lord Leverhulme Charitable Trust scholarships awarded

Posted 9 February 2015

Three students from north Shropshire and south Cheshire have received scholarships worth £1,500 each from the Lord Leverhulme Charitable Trust. 

Emilio Martinez, 20, from Malpas, is a second year BSc (Hons) Agriculture with Animal Science student. The former pupil of Bishop Heber High School said: “The Lord Leverhulme Charitable Trust Scholarship will hopefully set me apart from other students, especially when competing for employment, due to the prestigious nature of the award. 

“My ambition is to expand the family’s pedigree herd of Simmentals and to establish a herd of pedigree Aberdeen Angus to increase choice for clients. 

“In the future I would like to give something back to the Cheshire community and Harper Adams University through charitable work, educating the younger generations on food production and providing information from the family farm for research projects at Harper Adams,” added Emilio. 

Joe Betts, 22, from Selattyn, near Oswestry, is a final year BSc (Hons) Countryside and Environmental Management student. “It is a great privilege to have won a scholarship from such a reputable trust with an intriguing history,” said the former Llanfyllin Sixth Form student. 

Joe completed the work placement year of hid degree at Maelor Forest Nurseries Ltd and is hoping to have “a land-based career enabling me to pursue a career in fisheries management and/ or instruction whilst incorporating countryside and environmental management.” 

And the Lord Leverhulme Charitable Trust Scholarship is one of two awards made to food lover Jayne Bennett to help her to study on the other side of the Atlantic.  

Jayne, 19, from Sutton Upon Tern, near Market Drayton, is a second year BSc (Hons) Food, Nutrition and Wellbeing student at the county’s Harper Adams University. She has received a Clyde Higgs Scholarship as well as the Lord Leverhulme Scholarship. 

“I am truly grateful to have been awarded both the scholarships. It is lovely to have been recognised for my achievements and means that I can take the opportunity to study for a semester of my placement year at Cornell University in New York State, on an exchange programme which I have been selected for through academic achievement over 70%. 

“The money will cover accommodation, travel, visa and some living costs so I will be able to enjoy the experience in full without having financial worries,” said the former pupil of Sir John Talbots Technology College, Whitchurch, and Adams College, Wem.

“Cornell is a once-in-a-lifetime experience and it will be invaluable. With New York’s largest agricultural industry being dairy, it will allow me to explore differences to the UK and I am sure it will present me with ideas for the future… I can see myself impacting upon the rural economy through working in a new product development role – for which travel is important - adding innovation to the dairy-food industry to improve its value.”

The Lord Leverhulme Charitable Trust Scholarship is open to students whose permanent home is in Cheshire, Shropshire or South Lancashire