Finding scholarship recipients a ‘bittersweet’ process | Giving Day June 13, 2024
What do you do when there’s only one scholarship and hundreds of applicants? Mr James Leckie, Head of Enrolments at Trinity Grammar School, knows that one family’s great joy and excitement doesn’t come without the disappointment for many others.
Formally established through Trinity’s 2023 Giving Day campaign, the Suli Niulala Memorial Scholarship Fund was created to provide a disadvantaged Indigenous or Pacific Island boy with the opportunity to attend Trinity.
In honour of its beloved namesake, the Scholarship also looks for recipients who have a particular passion for Rugby and the Christian ethos of the School. Or, as Director of Enrolments, Mr James Leckie puts it, “Footy and faith.”
“There are so many boys out there who fit these characteristics,” says Mr Leckie as he reflects on the process of interviewing the prospective students and hearing from them what it would mean to them to be awarded the Suli Niulala Memorial Scholarship.
“I get to see how passionate people are about getting the opportunity to come to Trinity Grammar School,” he says. “I think sometimes we take that for granted. You see the lengths that people will go to, the effort they will put in to gain a scholarship to a place like Trinity.”
Mr Leckie recognises that being involved in the selection process comes with a lot of responsibility.
“I know full well that education is the key to breaking the cycle of disadvantage and being involved in this process… it’s just such a privilege. In some ways, it’s bittersweet that I get to meet these boys and see the change that we’re going to make in their lives, the opportunities that they’re going to have.
“But, at the same time, I see so many other students who I would love to extend the same opportunities to,” he says. “I see the excitement in the faces of the families when they find out that they have been awarded these sorts of scholarships, but I also have the difficult task of ringing other families to tell them that their son has missed out on this occasion.”
There is, after all, only one Suli Niulala Memorial Scholarship.
“I would love it if this opportunity were able to be extended to more families,” Mr Leckie says. “I know that if we gave those boys the same opportunities that they could thrive too and they could pursue their dreams and their potential.”
As Trinity’s 2024 Giving Day draws nearer, it’s this vision that the wider School community is coming together to make a reality.
The more money raised, the more opportunities there are to provide passionate young boys with a Trinity education. For Mr Leckie, it means that he can deliver the exciting news to more applicants, seeing the real difference the opportunity can make for not just one boy, but entire families and communities.
Giving Day 2024 takes place from 3pm on Thursday June 13 until 3pm Friday June 14.
