St Swithun’s student to use prestigious scholarship fund for educational project in Africa

18 year old Zara Boucher, a sixth form student at St Swithun’s School, Winchester, has been awarded a Bulkeley-Evans scholarship from the Headmasters’ and Headmistresses’ Conference (HMC) to help fund a project in Kenya.

Zara will spend part of her gap year as a volunteer teacher with the Vanessa Grant Trust at Gogar Primary School near Rongai in Kenya. Her work will include initiating a project which will have a lasting impact on the school. She plans to use the funds from the HMC scholarship to buy music, folders and other supplies to support a school choir.

The Bulkeley-Evans HMC scholarship fund was set up in 1952 with a mandate to support gap year projects between school and university for students in HMC schools. One of the conditions of the award is that Zara returns to St Swithun’s to talk to sixth form students about her experiences.

Zara, who applied for the grant on the advice of the head of student guidance at St Swithun’s said; ‘Volunteering at a Vanessa Grant Trust school will allow me to contribute to the local community and to the global movement towards education for all girls. Receiving the Bulkeley-Evans HMC scholarship is an honour. I am very excited to use it to give the children at Gogar the same opportunity that I have had to experience the joy of singing in a school choir.’

Zara is scheduled to travel to Kenya in January 2021.