{"id":8247,"date":"2021-08-10T08:40:48","date_gmt":"2021-08-10T00:40:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/two-scholarships-are-better-than-one\/"},"modified":"2022-12-07T13:10:10","modified_gmt":"2022-12-07T05:10:10","slug":"two-scholarships-are-better-than-one","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/two-scholarships-are-better-than-one\/","title":{"rendered":"Two scholarships are better than one!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>With the help of two scholarships from Curtin University, Ellecha Thorp has travelled from her small hometown in Western Australia\u2019s southwest to study in cosmopolitan Perth, and she plans to continue her journey north to a career in WA\u2019s rugged outback.<\/p>\n<p>While ambitious, Thorp\u2019s path hasn\u2019t been as straightforward as that of most school-leavers, but, thanks to two university scholarships, her dream career is in sight.<\/p>\n<p>Her first challenge was a fundamental one \u2013 the requirement to leave her family and home in a small-town community in southern WA, to study her chosen course \u2013 the four-year Bachelor of Social Work at Curtin University in Perth.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m very close to my family so I struggled moving away from home. And not only do you have to leave your family, you also need to find a job quickly and adjust to living full-time in a big city.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Secondly, coming from a single-parent household, Thorp was worried about the impact of her relocation costs.<\/p>\n<p>Discovering that there were a range of scholarships available to Curtin students, and with nothing to lose, she applied for the <a href=\"https:\/\/scholarships.curtin.edu.au\/Scholarship\/?id=4998\">Harry Perkins Memorial Scholarship<\/a>, which provides recipients from rural and low SES backgrounds support for their living costs.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI was adjusting to moving away from my family, studying at university and being independent. Finance was an additional stress to all that,\u201d she explains.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen I learned I\u2019d been awarded the scholarship, it was like a weight off my shoulders. And knowing there\u2019d be a consistent payment every semester was very reassuring.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The scholarship was a blessing for Thorp almost immediately.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn my first semester my laptop broke, but the scholarship funds allowed me to quickly buy a new one and continue to study.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>And continue she did. Her first-year grades were so high that she was awarded a second scholarship \u00adas a reward for her high grades.<\/p>\n<p>Together, the two scholarships have enabled Thorp to participate in work experience programs in WA and abroad.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_61375\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-61375\" style=\"width: 794px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-61375 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Ellecha-2.jpg\" alt=\"Curtin student Ellecha Thorp talking with other students in class\" width=\"794\" height=\"420\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-61375\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">A Harry Perkins Memorial Scholarship made university possible. Ellecha&#8217;s second scholarship rewarded her high grades.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cEvery opportunity you take opens doors. I had the opportunity to do field work in Broome and I felt very at home there.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere is something magical about red dirt and different communities. I have a special spot in my heart for rural Australia and know these communities are in need of ongoing support.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>She\u2019s now looking forward to working with individuals and communities in rural and remote WA, and she encourages others to follow her lead and apply for a scholarship.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCurtin has a fantastic scholarships program. People might not realise the range of scholarships available. The application takes a bit of effort, but the benefits are life-changing.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ellecha&#8217;s first scholarship helped make university possible. Her second was reward for her high grades.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":662,"featured_media":8248,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_oasis_is_in_workflow":0,"_oasis_original":0,"_oasis_task_priority":"","_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_research-areas":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"research-areas":[],"class_list":["post-8247","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-campus-and-global-community"],"acf":{"post_options":{"":null,"additional_content":{"title":"Scholarship applications for 2022 are now open","content":"<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/scholarships.curtin.edu.au\/Scholarship\/?id=4998\">Harry Perkins Memorial Scholarship<\/a> supports students facing financial hardship who are relocating from a regional or remote area to study at Curtin.<\/p>\n<p>Apply now or explore our <a href=\"https:\/\/scholarships.curtin.edu.au\/\">other merit and equity scholarships.<\/a><\/p>\n","image":false},"related_courses":false,"credits":{"author":"","photographer":"","media":false},"display_author":true,"banner":{"image":false}}},"featured_image":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/Ellecha-1-1000x500.jpg","author_meta":{"first_name":"Anita","last_name":"Shore","display_name":"Anita Shore"},"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-02 18:50:05","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8247","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/662"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8247"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8247\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8248"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8247"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8247"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8247"},{"taxonomy":"research-areas","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/research-areas?post=8247"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}